


Legacy Of Roj Blake - On Ariens Wings - Book 2 - Part 1

by Lculley



Category: Blake's 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 20:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 45,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20880353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lculley/pseuds/Lculley
Summary: It  is  a  dark  time  for  the  rebellion,  John  Blake  is  missing  presumed  dead,  the  starship  Freedom  has  been  destroyed  by  the  forces  of  the  Terran  Federation  and  the  rebel  alliance  has  been  purged  from  many  of  the  inner  worlds.A  new  inspiration  is  needed  if  the  rebellion,  lead  by  Kerr  Avon  is  to  continue.    Unknown  to  the  Federation  a  new  leader  is  about  to  emerge,  one  that  contains  the  hope  of  humanity.On  the  planet  Wanta  that  leader  is  about  to  rise  from  the  ashes  of  defeat  and  set  about  the  downfall  of  the  Supreme  Commander  Jack  Nixon’s  Terran  Federation...





	Legacy Of Roj Blake - On Ariens Wings - Book 2 - Part 1

Copyright: Laurence Culley

LEGACY

OF

ROJ BLAKE

ON ARIENS WINGS

BASED ON THE TELEVISION

SERIES BLAKE'S SEVEN

BY TERRY NATION.

I DEDICATE THIS TO THE MEMORY

OF TERRY NATION.

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Seven

Resurrection

It is a dark time for the rebellion, John Blake is missing presumed dead, the starship Freedom has been destroyed by the forces of the Terran Federation and the rebel alliance has been purged from many of the inner worlds.

A new inspiration is needed if the rebellion, lead by Kerr Avon is to continue. Unknown to the Federation a new leader is about to emerge, one that contains the hope of humanity.

On the planet Wanta that leader is about to rise from the ashes of defeat and set about the downfall of the Supreme Commander Jack Nixon’s Terran Federation... 

Within a darkened observation room, two miles north of security control, three men sat around a table, lit only by a small light rod that had been stationed in the centre of the table, they were playing a game of cards. Night watch was always a quiet affair because of the ten O'clock curfew, after ten nothing happened on the planet of Wanta. Night watch was only to ensure that the populace of Wanta didn't go about breaking the law and like all neutral planets, Wanta protected its neutrality, it treated both the rebellion and Federation alike, with utter contempt, anyone from either organisation that strayed onto the planet was dealt with, with extreme intensity, no trial or freedom to leave, just a cold and efficient death sentence. One of the three men had a good hand, his friends were trying to bluff him into thinking that they had the better hand, he knew from his great experience that his hand was the best you could get but he played along with them, hoping that they would put as much money onto the already growing pot as they could before he sprung his trap.

"I'll see your ten and raise another twenty," he said as he dropped his money onto the pile,

"He must be sure of himself," his friend taunted him with a wide smile.

Codie gave his rival a cold and even glare, His friend named Miles tried to figure out if Codie was bluffing, it was hard to tell, Miles took a deep breath and tossed two gold coins onto the pile,

"I see your twenty, let's see what you have got," he demanded,

Codie smirked as he turned his cards to the table so they faced upwards,

"Full house," Codie declared as he began to scoop up the money that he had won,

"Damn it," the third man named Kyle exclaimed as he threw his cards onto the table in disgust.

Codie filled his pockets with cash as an internal siren sounded, the three men suddenly stopped what they were doing, looked at each other before running to their stations, Kyle got to his station first, activated a screen and put the detector systems into a search mode, a blip appeared on his screen.

"I've got a contact, bearing three seven eight point nine five, speed, two hundred and eighty miles an hour," he stated,

"It could be an asteroid or a meteorite?" Codie speculated,

"Possibly, computers are saying that it will land sixty miles south, in the Nerrator forest," Miles said as he watched his monitor, the siren sounded again as the detectors picked up another contact, Kyle adjusted his detectors to pin point this new signal,

"Second contact confirmed, following the same trajectory as the first. Computers suggest that they with land approximately one mile apart, Kyle reported,

"Detectors indicate that they are composed of titanium, it can't be a meteorite or asteroid," Codie stated as he studied the monitor that threw up all available information at him,

"I can confirm that. The objects appear to be slowing down." Kyle said as he stood up and walked to the other side of the room to where the communication bank was situated,

"This is night watch three to control, we are detecting two unknown objects heading on a parallel course, directed at the Nerrator forest. Co-ordinance are as follows, three seven eight point nine five."

After a short pause the reply came through,

"This is control to night watch three, we confirm sightings and are now despatching recovery teams to the bearing given. Good work gentlemen,"

"Thank you." Kyle replied as he smiled to his colleagues, who were watching him and listening to the conversation,

"Night watch three out," Kyle signed off.

A brilliant lance of glowing red flashed across the night sky heading into the darkness of the Nerrator forest, a loud roar sounded as it impacted on the planets surface, as the volume of the roar subsided a second flash of red light streaked across the sky and landed not too far from the first, another roar echoed through the night air before falling silent, as it had been on many nights before it was quiet, peaceful and safe.

A simmering silver cylinder rested in the cradle that it had dug out for itself in the earth, half of its length was covered with a thick layer of mud, grass and trees that had broken the capsules fall, the outer hull hissed as it cooled from the extreme temperatures of the entry into Wanta's atmosphere. After a short while the air seals released, letting out plumes of hissing white gas from the edges of the entry hatch which fell from its holdings and hit the ground. The occupant slowly emerged and scanned his surroundings, Kerr Logan felt drained as he staggered out of the capsule, he tripped and tumbled over, rolling down the earth that covered the front of his capsule and landing on the ground with a thud. Kerr Logan grumbled as he looked up at the night sky, the stars shone brilliantly, the air was warm, there was hardly a breeze but the ground was coated with a layer of dew that oozed into his clothing making his back feel cold. He closed his eyes and opened his mind, reaching out all around him, seeing if anyone was approaching, he felt the presence of about twenty people, all heading in his direction. Logan summoned up all the strength that he could and rose to his feet, he climbed back into the capsule and gathered his belongings which he had placed into one simple brown rucksack, he threw it over one shoulder and activated the capsules auto destruct sequence. Logan scanned around him, he couldn't see much through the darkness so he opened his mind again and concentrated his thoughts on the darkness, soon he could see almost as clearly as if it was morning with a slight mist. He took another deep breath and headed on his way, his limbs and feet ached, he didn't really want to walk but he knew that on Wanta, staying still too long was too dangerous. 

The second capsule sat in a similar ditch, it hull hissed whilst it cooled. All was dark, nothing moved, that was until a twenty strong security force emerged from the darkness of the trees, three on foot, the others were on two transports, their blinding twin headlights lit up the area, shadows danced behind trees as the security squad pulled up to the Freedoms escape capsule, the three men that were on foot rushed to the entry hatch and operated the exterior key pad that was situated above the entry lock.

"Wait there," one man called out as he climbed out of the first transport and walked to them,

"Security detail, take up positions around the capsule, you three, get down from there," he ordered as he stood with his arms crossed, glaring at the three men that stood by the capsules entry lock.

The three men backed away as Commander Max Glenn, a tall man in his late forties who had dark brown hair and grey eyes reached into a pocket of his heavy all weather coat and pulled out a communicator,

"This is unit one to unit two, status please,"

"This is unit two, we have located the capsule, it is in a right mess, I guess that it exploded on impact," came a reply,

Commander Glenn nodded.

"Collect the remains and take them back for analysis," he ordered,

"Yes sir,"

Commander Glenn cut off the communication, he pushed the communicator back into his pocket and rubbed his hands together as he studied the capsule, it looked familiar to him, he had seen them before, it was built by the Federation for their military vessels, a high impact escape capsule. Glenn took a deep breath and approached the silver capsule, activated the locking mechanisms and stood back as the entry hatch fell away, he then peered inside, within the capsule was a beautiful blonde woman who wore tight black leggings and a tight fitting white blouse, beside her was a large silver box and a dark brown rucksack, she was unconscious, blood ran out of a gash above her right eye and a bruise had already formed on her left cheek, Glenn lent into the capsule and checked the unconscious form of Roxanne Davis for a pulse, she was alive but in a worrying condition, Glenn quickly turned to his security team,

"Medic, get here now, this one is injured,"

Glenn looked back at Roxy, she was most certainly beautiful, she did not look like she was Federation, but if she was it would be a shame, because he would have to destroy her. 

Not too far away from the crash site and up a tree, a man with blonde hair monitored Commander Glenn and his security team, the man watched everything carefully through a pair of infra-red binoculars, as two men lifted the limp body of Roxy out of the capsule another two men ran to them, carrying a stretcher between them, the blonde woman was carefully placed onto the stretcher and strapped down with three harnesses before being carried to the second transport. Danial Carson increased the magnification of his binoculars to get a better look of the unconscious woman, his eyes widened as he lowered the binoculars, he recognised her from the time he sold out the Federation and escaped from Gauda Prime with John Blake, the woman was Roxanne Davis, one of Blake's people. Danial then watched as a bag and a silver box was lifted out of the capsule and carried to one of the waiting transports, he looked away and let his binoculars hang from the strap around his neck and moved his wrist close to his mouth.

"Danial Carson to Samantha King, I have reached landing sight one, a Wanta security

team got here before me," he reported into a small communicator,

"I hear you Danial, what of landing sight two?"

"I can report that the object exploded on impact, nothing remains," Danial Carson replied softly,

"Very well, return to the ship," Samantha King ordered,

"Understood," Danial replied as he watched the Wanta security team drive off in the transports.

Once the transports were clear of the area, Danial Carson descended from the tree and made his way back to his ship.

Within an old, beaten up interstellar luxury liner named the Arien, a woman who was five feet six inches tall with cropped black hair and dark brown eyes stepped away for the external communications system. Samantha King had the look of a worried woman, she had all the right to be, General Markus the leader of the group, her commanding officer within the rebellion was dead, as were most of the other members of her strike force, the Arien was severely damaged, needing its drives and electrical systems rewired and repaired, even the flight computer was malfunctioning so it had to be shut down, Samantha ran a hand through her short hair as she stood alone on the small flight deck, one of the crew members was out on a reconnaissance mission while the other was now resting in his cabin, all three of them had worked very hard, Samantha was proud of them. Samantha sat at the inoperable flight controls, her thoughts were of her two comrades, the only survivors who how looked to her to get them out of this situation. She remembered what had happened when a large fragment of a destroyed space vessel had struck the Arien, she could see it clearly in her mind, first when they detected the fragment and then the impact and the panic that followed. The General had died when he had been pulled out of the ship and dragged into space after a hull breach along with two other people, the other crew members had died on impact as Samantha fought valiantly to bring the ship under control, it had been in vain, of the fifty crew and passengers of the Arien, only six survived, three of them seriously injured, a short time later those three had also died. Samantha covered her eyes with her hands and groaned out loud as a tall man in his late thirties entered the flight deck.

"I told you to get some rest," he said as he walked around the flight deck and stopped in front of the flight controls, eyes falling on Samantha as she uncovered her eyes.

"I'm waiting for Danial, once he is here I will," Samantha said as she sat back and yawned.

Samantha looked into the eyes of Lyle Ironside, his eyes were full of seriousness, he was the chief medic and scientist and took the responsibility seriously.

"How long have you gone without sleep?" Ironside asked, probing,

"I don't know, I don't keep tabs on the hours I stay wake for,"

Samantha replied as she yawned again,

"I do, you have been awake for the last twenty eight hours, give or take a minute or two," Ironside stated firmly,

"You need rest, so go to your cabin and I'll wait up for Danial," Ironside suggested as he took to detector control seat beside her.

Samantha rubbed the back of her neck, she was feeling sore, the heavy lifting and hard work that she had done over the last few days had taken its toll on her, she nodded and slowly rose from her seat.

"I think I will take your advice," she said as she headed out of the flight deck, she stopped before reaching the exit and turned around, Ironside was watching her.

"I don't think that I could handle you constantly having a go at me, I definitely need a rest so I'll go now," she added with a smile,

Ironside smirked as Samantha departed, he turned and activated the monitors, only some of the detector screens were working and they all showed him the same thing, trees.

Kerr Logan walked through the forest, his feet were killing him, his back ached and he felt tired, the landing on Wanta had taken a lot out of him, it was also tiring keeping his mind open enough so he could see around himself, he soon reached an open space within a ring of trees, the glow of a crescent moon filled the open area with a white light, Logan let out a sigh as he closed his mind, it was difficult to keep his mind open and walk at the same time, it took a lot of concentration and stamina, it felt good to relax for a while. Logan wondered if he was the only one of the remaining three crewmembers of the Freedom that was on this miserable planet, he hoped so, particularly for Roxy's sake who he missed terribly. He stopped and looked around, nothing was stirring except for the soft breeze which played with the branches of trees, nothing else moved, it seemed strange to think that in this forest there wasn't a single creature around, not even the sound of birds singing. Kerr Logan took a deep breath and slowly lowered himself to the ground, placing his rucksack close as he rested his back against the truck of a tree that was just inside the line trees surrounding the open space and closed his eyes, he took another deep breath, he felt so tired. Logan's eyes opened, he turned to his rucksack, opened the zipper and felt inside for a ration pack, he soon found one, pulled it out, fastened the zipper and began to eat. As he chewed on a fowl tasting nutrition bar Logan thought of how he was going to get off of this rotten planet, he knew that if the security forces would find him they would kill him, dying had no appeal anymore, he had done it once and he didn't wish to go through it again. The taste of the food bar was terrible, the more he eat it the worse it became but he knew he had to eat it, to keep his strength up, however he would much sooner throw it away, it was vial. Once the bar was eaten, Logan rolled his head from side to side, his neck cracked, relieving some of his discomfort.

"That feels better," he said to himself softly.

Suddenly Logan heard the sound of a twig snap, it was surprisingly loud in the silence. Kerr Logan reached for his gun and tossed the empty packet of the food bar to one side before reaching out with his mind, feeling around to find out where the sound came from, it didn't take too long before he sensed one man who seemed to be walking gingerly towards him, Logan wondered if whoever it was had heard him. The former Federation space captain kept his gun at the ready as the man approached, soon Logan could see him, standing just on the edge of the forest, looking out over the open space. Logan could see that the man was about his height and build with fair hair, wearing a black jump suit and binoculars around his neck, he also had a gun on his hip. Logan's eyes narrowed as the man headed off across the open space, Kerr studied the ground ahead, the open space was about a mile in diameter with no places where he could hide, Logan felt that this could be his way of getting off the planet, something inside told him to follow the man, he took a deep breath, summoned his strength again and headed off quietly, following the other man.

The security team had arrived back at their headquarters at the centre of Wanta's capital city Nerrational. Inside a five meter by six meter light blue painted medical bay within security headquarters, the unconscious form of Roxy Davis was placed onto one of three beds with instrumentation sensors placed on her temples and chest to monitor her condition using the small bank of screens at the head of the bed, the gash above her right eye had now been cleaned and covered with a plaster, her belongings including the silver box containing Orac had been placed in the care of the prisoner belongings control and storage. Commander Glenn stood by her side, he had already checked Roxy for any forms of identification but found nothing, he had to wait for her to wake up. Glenn walked across to the night nurse who was a stunning blue eyed brunette who was wearing a light green medical gown, little white hat and a little identity badge with her name on it, her name was Jennine, she was sat at a desk filling out Roxy's medical details. 

"Let me know if she wakes," he ordered, looking her right in the eye,

"For you Glenn, anything," Jennine replied with a friendly smile.

Glenn smiled at his close friend, they looked at each other right in the eye for a moment before Glenn tore his eyes away and turned to a security guard who was standing by the door, neat and tidy in his green and yellow uniform,

"No one comes in here but me and authorised medical personnel, is that understood?" Glenn ordered,

"Yes sir," the guard replied firmly as Glenn stepped out of the room and the door closing behind him.

The guard stood at attention with his rifle held across his chest as Commander Glenn marched off down the passage heading to the command offices.

Commander Glenn arrived in his office, it was a small room with only two rather ordinary wooden desks and four leather padded chairs, the walls of the office were light grey in colour with a white border running around the walls, the office was lit by glowing rods on the ceilings and the air was cleared by a very efficient air conditioning system. Glenn shared the office with another commander, you would only have an office of your own if you were a security captain. Commander Glenn slipped out of his all weather coat and hung it up on a hanger behind the door, he turned to his desk, walked around it and relaxed in the comfort of his big grey leather chair. Glenn reached towards his desk and began to compile his report on a computer keyboard and monitor that stood on the left side of the table. The night had been long and he was tired, as he keyed in his report the screen seemed to move in and out of focus, he rubbed his sore and tired eyes, he sighed and continued as another commander entered the office.

"You just got back?" Commander Nova asked,

Glenn nodded, he looked up at the older, grey haired man who was one of the old guard, one that played by the book, if there was one thing about him it was the fact that all people were treated the same by him, he gave no special favours to anyone.

"What appears to be a Federation escape capsule landed in the forest tonight. We have recovered a woman who was inside it," he said tiredly,

"Do you know who she is?" Nova queried, when off worlders were mentioned he always had an interest,

"No, she is unconscious at the moment," Glenn replied,

"So, what is this woman like?" Nova asked,

"Blonde and very beautiful,"

"Really, let's just hope that her beauty doesn't impair your judgement, she is an off worlder, probably Federation, if that is the case she is to be destroyed," Nova said as he pointed at Glenn.

"Yeah, I know," Glenn said sombrely, at times he disagreed with the law, he didn't see why anyone who was from the Federation or from the rebellion had to be destroyed.

"I think with this woman we may have to tighten up security," Glenn suggested.

"Why do something like that? You know doing something like that could create more problems than it would solve, create a lot of paperwork and anyway what is wrong with security?" Nova countered,

"What is right with it? With the refurbishments that are going on at the moment you could walk in and out of this place and no one would know,"

"Rubbish," Nova scoffed, sounding offended, he gave Glenn a stern look and then broke into a wide smile,

"So when am I going to see her?" He asked,

"She might wake up tomorrow,"

"Call me, I don't want to miss this," Nova said, rubbing his hands together with the expectation of interrogating another off worlder, he enjoyed his job.

"I'll see you later," Glenn called out after him,

"Yeah, right," Nova called back,

Glenn turned to his computer and continued with his report.

Kerr Logan had been following the other man now for almost three hours, it was surprising to him that the man hadn't turned round and seen him yet, or at least heard his foot steps behind him. In their long journey they had walked over the open space, into another dark forest and then another open space followed by a small outcropping of trees that they were passing through at current time. They had been travelling more or less in a straight line, Logan was feeling very weary, he was aching all over, he tried to dig deep into his mind to heal his aching body but he found that because he was tired mentally he could not repair himself physically, no matter how hard he tried, it was difficult to keep up with the pace of other man. Logan stopped as the other man walked into a wall of trees, he looked to his right and then his left, making sure that he wasn't walking into a trap of some kind, once sure that it was safe to proceed Kerr Logan began to walk. He reached the trees and looked through them, in front of him just behind the thin wall of trees was a starship, one that appeared to be damaged. Logan stepped through the trees and crouched down just out of sight. The ship was an old personal luxury cruiser, interstellar class, mark three that had the word Arien stamped on its rust coloured side. Logan saw the man ascend the lowered entry ramp, the moment before he disappeared inside Logan got a brief look at his face, Logan's heart sank as he remembered the man from the time in spent on Gauda Prime a little over a year ago,

"Danial Carson," Logan said under his breath.

Kerr Logan took a couple of deep breaths, squatting as he was his knees and thighs burned uncomfortably, suddenly his tiredness caught up with him. Logan staggered to his feet, his legs cried out for rest, he deeply distrusted Danial but he also knew that Danial was the most likely person to help him off the planet, knowing full well that Danial Carson was no longer with the Federation, with that in mind Logan did what his instincts told him not to, he walked to the ship and stepped gingerly up the ramp. Climbing the ramp took the breath out of him, he stopped as he reached the top, Logan could hear voices within, two male voices, one was most definitely Danial's. Logan walked quietly to just outside the flight deck and listened to their conversation.

"Took your time," Lyle Ironside said as Danial entered the flight deck,

"The walk was longer than I thought," Danial replied as he took to the flight seat and studied the monitors,

"You still haven't got this crate repaired yet?" Danial said in disgust, pointing at the controls,

"Samantha has been having difficulties," Lyle Ironside replied as he stood from the scanner controls.

"What did you find at the two landing sights?" Ironside asked,

"Not a lot, one capsule was destroyed, probably on impact, the other capsule was surrounded by Wanta security by the time I got there. They were pulling out a body when I left," Danial replied calmly.

Kerr Logan's heart raced, he had to know who was in that second capsule.

"A body?" Ironside asked,

"Yeah, by what I could hear the occupant was merely unconscious," Danial answered as he watched Ironside walk to a supply locker and pull out a bottle of mineral water,

"Have any idea who it was?" Ironside asked as he opened the bottle and took a mouthful, it was cold and felt good,

"It looked like one of John Blake's people, Roxanne Davis," Danial replied,

Lyle Ironside looked at him with rounded eyes,

"You're joking?" He said, not believing the other man,

Logan's heart sank, she was in serious trouble and he had to help her,

"Not at all," Danial replied dryly,

Kerr Logan took a deep breath, he drew his small side arm and stepped into the flight deck, Ironside's mouth suddenly dropped as he saw Logan enter the room,

"What is it?" Danial asked, noticing the change of expression on the other, taller man,

"Who the hell are you?" Ironside shouted, staring at Logan,

Danial spun around, he went for his gun,

"Don't do it Danial," Logan warned him, his gun aiming straight at him,

"Kerr Logan," Danial said as he moved his hand away from his gun and turned to face the unexpected guest,

"So, you survived the other capsule," Danial said with a hard glare,

"I just put the capsule onto the self destruct mode," Logan explained,

"So, what I heard on the communications system was true, the Freedom has been destroyed," Danial said gravely,

"That's right Danial, you are lucky I don't destroy you right now ," Logan said as he stepped nearer.

Danial nodded, he could understand why Logan would want to kill him, particularly after what had happened on Gauda Prime,

"You could do but I know you Logan, you won't," Danial stated firmly, his voice calm and collected.

"You don't know me at all Danial," Logan snapped,

Ironside was surprised how calm Danial was with the fact that he had a gun pointed at him, for Ironside it scared the living daylights out of him.

"So are you going to use that gun or are you going to put it away?" Danial said as he stepped a little nearer, he could see the fatigue in Logan's eyes.

Logan let out a long breath as he lowered the gun, Ironside gave a sigh of relief.

"I guess that you came here for our help?" Danial said curiously,

"Something like that, first it was to get off this planet but now I have to rescue Roxy and then I'll leave this planet," Logan replied as he holstered his gun,

"You must be joking?" Ironside said in amazement,

Logan gave him a serious look, Danial just smirked,

"Why would we want to do that?"

"Because I don't abandon my friends and she also has Orac," Logan explained, not wanting to tell them that he was also in love with the woman.

Danial walked round the flight deck and stopped in front of the ships deactivated flight computer, he knew that Orac was important and that it would be a perfect tool to keep hold of but it wasn't entirely his decision,

"I'm not the one you have to ask Logan, Samantha is running things here,"

"And where is she?" Logan asked,

"Resting," Ironside answered,

Logan envied her, he needed rest and he felt that he was close to falling where he stood. Danial studied him,

"Need a chair?" He asked flatly, seeing Logan’s fatigue,

"Yes I think so," Logan tiredly replied,

"Fine, take any of the flight seats, I'll get Samantha." Danial said as he gestured to the flight seat before heading out of the room.

Logan sat at the nearest flight control, it was the ships systems control board. Ironside was giving him a curious look.

"What is it?" Logan asked him,

"Your name, I've heard it before," Ironside said curiously,

"So?"

"Were you anywhere near Septer Prime midway through last year?" Ironside asked,

Logan remembered Septer Prime all too well, he could still see it as if it had only happened yesterday, he could see the face of Terrlow and the strange being, Confusers. Logan took a deep breath,

"I was there, why?"

"Were you the one in the cryo-cell?"

Logan shot him a hard look,

"Yes."

"I thought you were dead," Lyle said as he stepped closer to Logan,

"I was for a time," Kerr Logan replied as he remembered that nightmare of being frozen in the cryo-cell as some guinea pig in an experiment,

"What did it feel like?" Ironside asked, his scientific mind working overtime,

"What did what feel like?" Logan asked,

"Dying, what did dying feel like?" Ironside pressed,

"I would rather not talk about it," Logan said, knowing full well that if he even came close to mentioning Confusers life would be over for him, it was safer not to speak of it, Logan then gave Ironside a quizzical look,

"You were on Septer Prime too?"

"Yes, I got you out of the cryo-cell," Ironside replied,

"You have my thanks," Logan said with a tired looking smile,

Ironside nodded and took a deep breath.

"You look tired," he said to Logan to change the subject as he looked the other man up and down,

"I feel it," Logan sighed quietly,

"You should get some rest," Ironside suggested,

"Only once Roxy is free and with me," Logan replied as he looked at the control board in front of him.

"Rescuing your friend in your condition is not at all wise," Samantha King said as she entered the flight deck, over hearing Logan's words.

Logan turned to her, Samantha was just over five and a half feet tall with an athletic build, short hair and dark eyes, she wore a pair of beige trousers and a cream shirt, she was fairly attractive but nowhere near as beautiful as Roxy. Danial was stood by her side.

"I'm not after your opinion," Logan replied as firmly as his tiredness would let him,

"Look at you, you are barely conscience. It wouldn’t surprise me if you were to pass out right now," Samantha King said as she rounded the control board that Logan was sat at and stood beside Lyle Ironside,

"Danial tells me that the Freedom has been destroyed," Samantha said curiously,

"That's right," Logan replied,

"Where is Blake?"

"I have no idea," Logan said with a yawn, he was close to falling asleep were he sat, Samantha King looked away from him for a moment,

“What about Karla?” Danial asked,

“Dead,” Logan Stated Flatly,

“That other guy, Simpson was it?” Danial pressed,

“Dead too!”

Danial grinned as he crossed his arms,

“Not having a good day are you?” He said with a tilt of his head and a smirk,

“You’re run from your hidden base, the Freedom destroyed, Blake missing, Roxy captured and Karla and Simpson are dead,” he recapped,

“The day would improve if I killed you,” Logan snapped, he didn’t appreciate being reminded of recent events,

“Really?” Danial teased,

“I have a gun,” Logan pointed out,

“There is a good chance I could get to you and knock you out before you could draw your gun,” Danial stated bluntly,

“Really Danial?” Ironside interjected,

"If we are going to mount a rescue operation, we will have to be at our most alert and responsive, if not we don't go," Samantha snapped authoritatively, she wasn’t enjoying this exchange between the two men.

Logan glared at her, he wished that he could challenge her but he knew that she was right, Kerr Logan let out a sigh,

"You're right," he conceded,

"I know I am," Samantha said sternly before walking towards the ships flight computer,

"But before I say that we will go and rescue your friend, what is in it for us?" She asked,

"When I entered this ship I over heard Danial saying that you haven't got the flight systems functioning yet," Logan said,

"That's right,"

"I can help you repair them," Logan offered,

"Then we all get to leave here," he added,

Samantha King nodded as she slowly walked around the flight deck,

Logan's eyes followed her, as did the other two men,

"Very well Logan, we'll do it, but first you are to get some rest,"

Kerr Logan simply nodded, he needed a rest, he wasn't sure on how long he could avoid one.

"Ironside, take Logan to a cabin," Samantha ordered,

"Okay," Ironside said as he headed to the entrance,

"I'll see you later Logan," Samantha called out as the pilot eased himself out of the control seat, his legs felt like jelly, he was surprised he could stand at all.

Logan looked to Samantha and gave her a thankful smile,

"Yeah," he said softly before following Ironside out of the flight deck.

After Logan and Ironside departed Samantha turned to Danial,

"Can we trust Logan?" She asked,

Danial gave her a hard look,

"I trust no one," he snapped,

"However, I know that Logan is one person that can be relied upon, he is a good fighter and a better space pilot, he thinks about the welfare of people he is with but he would never really admit it," Danial said firmly,

"If you are asking me if he would sell us out, he wouldn't," he added as he headed to the entrance,

"I need to clean up," he said to himself before leaving.

Samantha King was all alone on the flight deck once more as she crossed her arms and nodded,

"Good, that is all I needed to know."

Within the medical bay of Wanta security command, Roxy Davis rolled her head to one side, her eyes still closed, mumbling to herself,

"Kerr, Kerr, no, help me please, Kerr."

Jennine watched Roxy for a moment, she stood and walked over to the blonde woman, the nurse checked over the monitors, Roxy was coming to. Jennine turned and stepped back to her desk, hit the intercom button and called,

"This is nurse Jennine, get me Commander Glenn, Now."

Jennine turned to Roxy, whose eyes were now beginning to open.

It wasn't too long before Commander Glenn entered the medical bay, Roxy was already awake, sat cross legged on the bed eating some soup that Jennine had been kind enough to offer her. Jennine stepped over to Glenn and took his arm,

"She is still in poor shape, you will have to wait for a while before you can question her," Jennine said softly, hoping that Roxy couldn't hear her.

"Okay, has she said anything since coming around?" Glenn asked quietly,

"She was mumbling on about needing help, and she called out a name a few times, the name Kerr," Jennine answered,

"Kerr?" Glenn queried,

"That's all,"

Glenn nodded and walked to Roxy's bedside as Jennine re-took her seat. Roxy looked briefly at him before continuing with the soup, it as so warm and tasted so good,

"That smells good," Glenn said as he sat down in front of her,

"It tastes good too," Roxy replied tiredly between mouthfuls,

"What's the flavour?" Glenn asked, he felt it better to ask simple questions at the moment, it allowed him to be able to make up a profile of the blonde,

"Ox soup, my favourite," Roxy answered,

"Mine too," Glenn said softly,

Roxy looked at him again, this time for a little longer, Glenn was a fairly attractive man, with handsome grey eyes and messy brown hair, he reminded Roxy of Logan, her heart sank as Kerr Logan came to mind, she missed him. Max Glenn noticed the change, the sadness that draped the blonde's face. 

"My name is Max Glenn," he offered as he reached out his hand, Roxy looked at his hand, for a moment she was tempted to shake it but resisted, she simply looked into his eyes and managed a faint smile,

"Hi," she said before finishing off her soup,

"What is your name?" Glenn asked curiously as he pulled his hand away.

Roxy took a deep breath, she wasn't about to tell him her real name, not with the fact that she didn't know where she was and the fact that she was on a number of wanted posters around the galaxy, she chose to lie,

"I'm Karla Logan." she said, hoping she sounded genuine.

Glenn smiled and nodded, she sounded genuine but the answer seemed to come too easy,

"Where are you from?" He asked,

"You ask a lot of questions," Roxy countered,

"It's my job Karla, I'm here to help you,"

Roxy smiled and sat back, placing the empty soup bowl on the bedside cupboard beside her, next to an empty glass and a jug of orange juice, she collected the glass, filled it with the orange and began to drink it, like the soup it tasted good, Roxy needed it.

"Tell me Karla, Who is Kerr?" Glenn asked,

Roxy gave him a saddened look and took a deep breath, she would lie again,

"He's dead," Roxy replied, it hurt to even say it even knowing that he maybe alive, but she had to cover herself, this man, Glenn seemed charming enough but she wasn't going to fall for it.

"Was that why you were calling out for help?" Glenn pressed,

"Was I?" Roxy asked, sounding innocent,

"You said it while you were unconscious,"

"I must have been delusional, or I had a nightmare," Replied Roxy,

Glenn gave her a harder look,

"Where did you come from?" He questioned,

"Earth," Roxy answered,

"Where were you going? How did you come to be here?"

Roxy shook her head, she faked the arrival of a headache, held on to her head and closed her eyes mocking pain, Jennine noticed her pain, stood up and walked to the bedside,

"You okay?" She asked Roxy,

"My head hurts, feels like it's trying to split in two," Roxy replied,

Jennine turned to Glenn,

"Give her time to recover, she's not in the condition to take too much questioning," she said firmly,

Max Glenn nodded, he could see that Jennine was right, he was frustrated that he still knew nothing about this blonde who called herself Karla. Glenn rose to his feet and walked with Jennine to the door,

"She is lucky that I'm not Commander Nova, he would beat the hell out of her to get the answers that he wanted," Glenn said aloud, hoping that Roxy would hear him, Jennine nodded, she knew of Nova’s reputation, he was a pleasant man if you don't talk about work, he enjoyed his job, knowing that he was protecting the people of Wanta, he followed the law to the letter, killing both Federation officers and rebel activist was just a part of his job, nothing more nothing less. Glenn turned to Jennine,

"Let me know if her condition improves," he ordered,

"I will." Jennine said softly,

"Oh, by the way how are things for tonight?" Glenn asked,

Jennine smiled, Glenn had planned a night out for her,

"Everything is fine, I'll see you later,"

"Looking forward to it," Glenn said before he left.

Jennine took a deep breath and stepped back into the medical bay, Roxy was still holding her head, grimacing in mock pain,

"Let's see if I can find anything to help your head," she said as she walked over to some locked medical cupboards that stood behind her desk.

Kerr Logan stepped out of the cabin he had been given to rest in, he was freshly bathed, fed and dressed in a black and grey jump-suit with matching jacket, a belt around his waist in which hung his holstered plasma pistol, all items he had brought with him from the Freedom. Logan walked into the flight deck, Ironside was working on the Arien's detectors systems and Samantha had already begun work on the computer core, Danial was nowhere to be seen. Samantha heard Logan enter and looked up from her work,

"So, you've decided to join us now," she said in a firm tone,

Logan gave her a hard look,

"I'm here aren't I?"

"An hour later than we planned," Samantha countered,

"I over slept, so what?" Logan snapped,

"It's not as if I have to answer to you anyway," he retorted,

"You came to us asking for our help, remember that," Samantha said as she stood up and stretched her back, her eyes turned on Logan with an irritated anger,

"Where's Danial?" Logan asked, looking around the small flight deck,

"He's gone into the city to infiltrate Wanta security and check on your friend Roxy,

we should be hearing from him soon," Samantha replied,

Logan smirked, that was good to hear, if Danial had a skill set, it was infiltration,

"I'll get to work," he said with a slight smile,

"Good," Samantha said as she continued with her own work,

"By the way how are you feeling now?" She asked,

"A lot better now apart from this headache I have, thank you," Logan replied as he walked over to the flight controls, removed an entry cover and checked out the damage, the damage was extensive,

"I'll need Roxy for most of this, I can do some of this but she's the expert," he said to himself.

He stopped for a moment, his feelings for Roxy where hurting, he missed her desperately, he wanted to be with her, to hold her, to kiss her and to know that she was safe. Kerr Logan shook his head, trying in vain to clear her out of his mind, he took a deep breath, opened his mind and reached out for even the most remotest of touches of her, to let Roxy know that he was alive and to give her hope. After a short while he felt her presence, it felt as if she was asleep.

"Roxy," he called out in his mind,

There was a stirring, as if she had just heard him and then there was a soft, warm glow, Logan smiled, she was all right.

Roxy woke with a start, she felt a sudden warm feeling within and she could hear Logan's voice inside her mind,

"Roxy."

Roxy smiled, Logan was alive and thinking of her, hopefully it wouldn't be too long until he rescued her, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. The medical bay was quiet and dark, the duty nurse was nowhere to be seen, Roxy removed the bed covers, she was still wearing her white blouse and black leggings and climbed out of the bed, the floor was cold to her bare feet, she looked around for her boots, she saw them standing by the duty nurses desk. Roxy padded her way across the room, slipped the boots back on and began to remove the instrumentation sensors that were stuck to the sides of her head and chest. As she turned to leave she saw Commander Nova standing by the door, watching her.

"So, you are well enough to walk, good. You should be well enough to talk." Nova said firmly, looking Roxy right in the eye.

Roxy remained still as Nova stepped nearer to her, he was smiling,

"Commander Glenn was right about you, you are beautiful. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Commander Nova, I will be your host in your interrogation," Commander Nova said with a sadistic smile as he turned to a guard who appeared behind him,

"Take her to interrogation room one and inform Commander Glenn where she is," Nova ordered,

Roxy's fear rose, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, she had heard of him and his reputation, she hoped that it wouldn't be too long to wait for Logan, deep down, Roxy knew that she wasn't going to like this.

Roxy Davis was lead out of the medical room, Commander Nova lead the way with the guard following behind her, Roxy was growing more afraid, however she had now found a way to control it, Logan had taught her well. As they rounded a corner they passed a blonde haired maintenance man who wore grey overalls who was working on an air conditioning duct. Roxy didn't really notice him, either did Commander Nova and the guard as they passed him by, the maintenance man turned and watched them as they reached another turning and disappeared around it. Danial Carson's eyes narrowed, he stood up and gathered his tools and followed them, he reached the turning and peered around the corner, Roxy was lead into a room, four doors down and to the right, there was a sign post hanging just above his head, Danial read it, Interrogation, Danial nodded understandingly, he then continued his survey of security command. One thing that Danial had noticed was how easy it had been to infiltrate the place, he had expected to find it far harder than it was, he knew that it would be easy to rescue Logan's friend, if this was Wanta's idea of security then they needed to scrap it and start again. 

Work was going well on the flight deck of the Arien, Logan was close to finishing the reconstructing of the flight controls, or at least making them operational, it still needed the expert touch of an electrical engineer, Samantha had got the flight computer back on-line and the detectors were now up and running. Kerr Logan stood beside the life support systems and watched as Ironside finished his work and stepped back as if to admire his work.

"I had no idea that you could do this kind of work," Logan said with a hint of curiosity in his tone,

"You have to have more than one skill if you are to be in the rebellion, I learnt that from being with Avalon," Ironside replied as he turned to the other man,

"Well, the computer's completed now," Samantha said as she tidied up her tools that were strewn across the floor,

"Let's see if it works shall we," Logan said with a hint of sarcasm as he walked to the computer and pressed the activation button, Samantha had finished gathering up her tools while Ironside and Logan looked on as the computer came to life,

"State program name," Logan commanded,

"SLAVE," the computer responded,

"Systems check," Logan ordered,

"ALL SHIP SYSTEMS ARE OPERATING AT MINIMAL POWER MASTER,"

"Flight systems?"

"FLIGHT SYSTEMS ARE AT EIGHTY THREE PERCENT OF FULL FUNCTION MASTER,"

Samantha turned to Logan,

"Slave must like you," she laughed,

"Certainly does, master," Ironside joined in, looking to Logan with an amused smile,

"Detectors?" Logan said, ignoring the comments made by the other two,

"DETECTORS ARE AT NINETY ONE POINT SEVEN PERCENT EFFICIENCY MASTER," Slave replied,

"Is the Arien flight worthy?" Logan asked,

"FURTHER REPAIR WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH THE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS BEFORE FLIGHT IS ATTEMPTED," the computer suggested,

"Where exactly do we need to work on to solve the life support problem?" Samantha asked,

"THE MAIN POWER CONDUIT NEEDS REPLACING AS DOES THE DISTRIBUTION COUPLER MADAM,"

"Ironside can continue the life support, Logan, I want an improvement in the flight systems. I don't want to take any chances," Samantha said as she headed to the entrance,

"Fine," Logan replied as he saw Danial Carson enter the flight deck, he was still wearing the engineers overalls he had stolen from the security command centre.

Samantha turned to him,

"I didn't expect you back so soon,"

"It was easier than I thought," Danial replied,

"Did you see Roxy?" Logan asked,

"I did, she was being taken to interrogation," Danial answered,

"How did she look?" Logan pressed,

"Worried, but contained," the former covert operation officer replied,

"You said it was easy to get in, would it be just as easy with two of us?" Logan queried,

"Why, you thinking of just the two of us going in to rescue her?" Danial asked as he crossed his arms,

"Something like that, no need to risk Sam and Ironside,"

"You think that I'm going to sit around here twiddling my thumps as you and Danial go into battle?" Samantha asked as she stepped over to Logan, pointing at him,

"This ship needs further attention, you are a starship engineer are you not?" Logan asked,

"Yes, so?"

"You would be more able to restore the flight systems than I. I have done all I can to it, and by the way Roxy is my problem, not yours," Logan stated harshly,

"But trust me when I say that I will not let you miss the next occasion when we go into battle," he added,

Samantha's glare faded as she understood his logic,

"I'll hold you to that promise," Samantha said, pointing a finger at him,

"Trust me," Logan said with a smile,

"I shouldn't do, but I find myself doing just that," Samantha conceded,

"Good, shall we go Danial?" Logan said as he turned to the other man,

Danial did not expecting that he would be going back so soon,

"After you," he replied.

Danial turned to Samantha King, who was now walking over to the flight controls,

"We should be back within the next two hours, see you then,"

"Go, get out of here," Samantha snapped, still sounding a little let down, she wanted to go into battle, that was why she joined the rebellion, she hated standing around, this reminded her of the time when she was involved in the battle on Septer Prime, when the rebellion raided Val Terrlow's castle.

Kerr Logan and Danial Carson headed out of the flight deck leaving Samantha King and Lyle Ironside alone on the Arien.

"We've got work to do," Samantha told Ironside,

"Yes ma'am," Ironside replied with a grimace, he returned to the life support system as Samantha King continued Logan's work on the flight systems.

Commander Max Glenn walked into his office, he had received a priority call from Commander Nova to return to security command, Glenn tossed his long dark brown coat across his desk as Nova entered the office,

"You got here quickly," Nova said with a smile,

"I hope that you didn't break any speed limits to get here?" He teased,

"What is this all about? It better be good I've had to leave Jennine and a lovely meal sitting on a table at the Resort restaurant for this," Glenn snapped,

"Expensive," Nova said sarcastically,

"It had to be the best place around if I was to ask Jennine to marry me," Glenn countered,

Nova looked surprised,

"That's a big commitment,"

"I know, so what is it you want?" Glenn asked, he sounded irate,

"I've interrogated that woman you recovered from the capsule as you asked,"

"So, you could have told me that in the morning,"

"Well, One thing that bothered me was that fact that she wasn't very co-operative, so I decided to have a look at her capsule again," Nova went on,

"What did you find?"

"On her capsule, nothing, so I checked to second one. On close analysis I found that the capsule had exploded from the inside, so I went back to the intact one and what did I find?" Nova asked, obviously feeling good about himself and his abilities to investigate problems and solve them,

"Tell me," Glenn asked as he sat on his desk,

"The escape capsules have an automatic destruct system. I have since worked out that the second capsule did not explode on impact as we first thought but was exploded afterwards,"

"Meaning that there is another person at large on the planet," Glenn stated as it became clear to him,

"Exactly. I checked your report on our prisoner. She said the name Kerr when she was unconscious,"

"Yes, she said he was dead," Glenn stated,

"I know, however I think that he was in the other capsule. With her being unconscious, she would not have known about it," Nova said as he walked over to a drinks cabinet and poured himself a half glass of white wine.

"So what are you thinking?" Glenn asked him,

Nova turned to him and smiled,

"Remember that space battle that we detected inside our system?"

"Yes, the one between the Federation and the rebel ship the Freedom,"

"I believe that our two uninvited guests came from that battle,"

"Sounds logical," Glenn agreed,

Nova downed his glass of wine and re-filled his glass.

"So with that in mind I went over our Federation and rebellion files,

using them I have identified our woman friend and this Kerr she spoke of,"

"And they are?" Glenn asked, who really wanted to know,

"Kerr is someone named Kerr Logan and the woman is Roxanne Davis, both are well known rebels who fought with another famed rebel named John Blake. So, she is a rebel, not a Federation person as you first thought," Nova said as he poured out another glass of wine and handed it to his younger colleague, Glenn took the glass and took a sip from it.

"So according to our law this woman is to be destroyed," Nova stated firmly,

Glenn nodded, he wished that he wouldn't have to do this but it was the law and he was an agent of the law, he had no choice but to follow it,

"Okay. We will have to arrange her execution,"

"No need to worry about that, I've already seen to it," Nova said with a smile,

"You mean she's dead?" Glenn asked,

"No, not yet, but I've arranged the time and place,"

"When?"

"In half an hours time, Roxanne Davis will be given a lethal injection. I've decided to do this one personally," Nova said as he set his glass on top of the drinks cabinet and headed out of the office,

"You are quite welcome to join me and watch if you like," Nova called from over his shoulder,

"No thanks. The pleasure can be all yours," Glenn called after him, he didn't want her death on his conscience, he felt bad enough bringing her in, he would feel worse if he watched her die, he was never too good when it came to guilt, it would always eat him up inside, Nova always joked that he should never of joined the security forces, sometimes Glenn could agree with him. Glenn took a deep breath as he shook his head,

"I'm sorry Roxanne Davis, I'm so sorry." 

Danial Carson and Kerr Logan crouched behind a hedge, across a narrow road from Wanta security control, it was a five storey red bricked building that looked like every other construction they had passed on their journey through the city, if it wasn't for the blatant sign that stood outside by a driveway you would never of known that this building was used for. Danial pointed to the buildings side entrance, a small team of service engineers were taking boxes of computer equipment in and out of the building and placing them into an awaiting transport, they all wore identical grey overalls that Danial was wearing,

"I got this from that transport." Danial said pulling on his overalls.

"There were a few more of them in there, I'm sure that we could find on that fits you," Danial added as he turned to Logan,

"Positive," Logan said in agreement as he looked left and right, making sure that the coast was clear, all seemed quiet enough. 

Logan held on to his head, it throbbed painfully, his discomfort was noticed by Danial who regarded him with curious eyes,

"Are you all right?" He asked,

"My head has flared again, it will pass," Logan replied,

"You probably haven't got over the shock of recent events, remember you were forced from your secret base, crew mates of yours were killed and your ship was destroyed, and now you intend to rescue one of your friends, that's a lot to handle for anyone," Danial stated calmly, almost sounding sympathetic.

"Probably," Logan replied, not really wanting to admit that could be the case, he simply nodded, relaxed his mind and the headache soon passed.

Logan sighed as he watched five service engineers remove a large heavy oblong box from the rear or the transport and carry it inside between them, leaving the area unguarded.

"Time we moved." Logan ordered as he stood and headed across the narrow road.

Danial's eyes followed Logan curiously before he set off close behind the other man, one who seemed to be taking charge of the situation he and his comrades were in. They darted across the road and stopped beside the transports open rear doors, as Danial covered the area with his gun Logan jumped into the transport and disappeared down the back of the trailer, he found himself some overalls, they were a few sizes too big but because he was in a hurry it didn't matter.

"The engineers are coming back Logan, hurry up." Danial urged through clenched teeth.

Logan heard Danial and quickly slid the overalls on over the clothes he already wore, by the time the engineers returned to the transport Logan was fully dressed, he scooped up a small box and jumped out of the transport before turning to Danial,

"Time we got inside," he said firmly.

As Danial hid his gun inside his overalls Logan entered Wanta security command, the service engineers continued with their work not even noticing the other two people with them.

Within a small white room at the centre of the imprisonment area on the third floor, Commander Nova was double checking the harnesses on a operating table as Roxy Davis was escorted in by two well built security guards. Roxy was still sore from her interrogation as she looked around the room, apart from the operating table, Commander Nova and a recording computer there was nothing in the room. Roxy felt suddenly cold, she hadn't been told why she was brought here but she felt that she knew.

"Strap her down," Commander Nova ordered as he reached into a pocket of his green jacket and produced a syringe and a small glass bottle that contained a red liquid, the guards grabbed Roxy and lead her to the table. Roxy shrugged one off and kicked the other as hard as she could in his groin, he bucked and groaned out loud as he held on to his aching genitalia. Spurred on by fear and the need to survive Roxy then spun on one foot, kicking at the other guard with the other, hitting him square in the chest, the guard staggered backward as Roxy moved into the kill, she was about to pounce as Nova struck her on the back of her neck, knocking the blonde woman out cold, she slumped to the floor with a thud,

"Put her on the table," Nova ordered, sounding irate,

"Yes sir," the guard to whom Roxy had nearly chastised said with a whimper.

The two guards recovered themselves and lifted Roxy off the floor and placed her on the operating table, they then secured the harnesses as Nova filled the syringe with the deadly poison, once the blonde woman was secure the guards stepped back as Nova stood over Roxy's unconscious body,

"I'll wait for her to come round, then I'll inject her, I want her to feel this," he said bitterly.

Danial stepped out of a lift, he checked that the corridor was clear. The corridor was coloured a watery grey with doors every four meters, standing between the doors stood a tall terracotta plant pots from which bright evergreens stood about a meter tall, after being happy that it was safe enough he turned back to the lift,

"Clear," he said quietly.

Logan stepped out, looked up and down the corridor, he was surprised that two service engineers without any form of identification could just walk in and not be noticed, they had already collected Orac and the rucksack that contained Roxy's belongings that Logan now wore, security was a joke.

"Now where to?" Logan asked,

"This way," Danial said before setting off down the corridor,

Logan followed him, feeling that this whole thing was far too easy, he drew his gun but kept it close against his thigh, hopefully out of sight,

"Roxy has been scheduled for termination today, that means that she will be in the execution room which is around this corner on the left, fourth room on the right," Danial said to Logan as the two of them reached a tee junction.

Danial turned left and continued down the corridor until he reached the fourth door on the right.

Roxy Davis came to, she felt a little light headed and her neck ached, Nova saw her open her eyes and smiled victoriously. Roxy glared at him, her fear rose, she tried to move but the harnesses held her down fast.

"Good, now we can begin," Nova said as he gave the syringe a gentle squeeze which let some of the poison dribble out of the thin needle and drip onto the floor.

"No," Roxy shouted,

"I'm afraid so Roxanne Davis, rebel scum," Nova said bitterly, 

"I'm Karla Logan," Roxy protested,

"I think not. I've checked with our computer files, you are Roxanne Davis, one of John Blake's people from the Freedom," Nova said in a matter of fact tone as he prepared to inject the poison into the blonde.

Logan could hear Roxy's protestations through the door, he wasn't going to wait anymore, he set Orac onto the floor beside the foot of the door, levelled his weapon and kicked the door in, his kick was hard enough to rip the door away from its hinges and hit one of the guards, knocking him out cold, the second guard went for his side arm but Logan was faster and fired one shot at him, killing him instantly. Nova stood with the needle already inserted into Roxy's arm.

"Stand back rebel scum or she dies," he warned Logan.

Roxy felt a mixture of hope and fear as she looked at Logan,

"Kerr," she called out in disbelief.

Logan smiled at her as Danial appeared behind him with a gun trained on Nova,

"So, you're Kerr," Nova said with a satisfied smile,

"You kill her, you will be the next to die," Logan warned as he turned his attention to Nova,

"So take that needle out of her if you want to live," he offered,

"I don't negotiate with rebel scum," Nova countered,

"Fine," Logan said as stood back, he opened up his mind and reached out to the syringe, he could almost feel its rough plastic surface pressing against the inside of his hand as he tightened his grip around it. Danial noticed that Logan's free hand tightened, once Logan was sure he had a good enough grip he pulled the needle out of Roxy's arm.

Nova staggered back, surprised and shocked by the strange force that had made him remove the needle, Danial was just as surprised but he saw his opportunity and pulled the trigger, the shot rang out, Nova looked up at Danial as Logan rushed to the operating table and released the harnesses that held Roxy down, Nova’s wide eyes rolled as he gave out his final breath, he was dead. Danial stood over Nova’s body, trying to figure out why he had suddenly jerked backwards as Roxy and Logan hugged each other, it felt so good to be together again, they had missed each other terribly. Suddenly the command centres alarm went off.

"Time we moved," Danial said sombrely as he turned to the others,

Logan nodded as Roxy said,

"I would never of imagined that I would be so happy to see you again Danial,"

"Life is full of surprises," Danial replied dryly as he headed to the door. 

Roxy armed herself with one of the guard's weapons and followed Logan and Danial out into the corridor.

"Hold it right there."

The three of them turned to see four Wanta security guards standing in the corridor aiming their guns at them, without thinking Roxy opened fire, hitting two guards with her first two shots, Logan and Danial joined in and gunned down the other two before they could fire one shot in reply. Logan grabbed Orac as Danial made a run for it, Roxy followed with Logan close behind.

"Where to now?" Roxy asked, wanting to be free of this place,

"This way." Danial replied as he reached the tee junction,

Danial turned the corner and was confronted by four more of Wanta's security guards, who opened fire on him. Danial dived around the corner, evading the bad attempts to kill him, he hit the floor, rolled and quickly got to his feet before returning fire, he was soon joined by Roxy and Logan, their combined firepower and higher level of accuracy finished off the guards as if it was just target practise. Once all of the guards were dead Danial turned to Roxy with an amused smile,

“What?” She asked,

“I never took you for a person who could fire a gun, let alone be so accurate and kill someone with it," Danial confessed,

“Life is full of surprises” Roxy said with a smirk,

“Clearly,” Danial said before he ran to the lift and hit the call button, Logan and Roxy joined him, covering the corridor in both directions with their guns. 

It seemed to take an eternity for the lift to arrive, when it did and the doors opened, it had three security guards onboard, they looked at Danial and the group in

surprise, they obviously didn't expect to come face to face with them so soon, taking the advantage Danial let off a volley of plasma, killing the three guards instantly. The three rebels jumped into the lift as more security guards appeared, coming from both ends of the corridor with guns blazing.

"Stop them," One guard shouted out,

"Stop this," Logan said as he opened fire, hitting two more guards, killing one, the other guard whimpered as he rolled about on the floor in agony. 

Danial hammered the lift controls, the doors slowly began to close as the security guards attempted to rush the lift, the doors closed and the lift began to make its decent.

A security guard rushed into Commander Glenn's office, he was breathing heavily as he reached Glenn's desk, the Commander was filing a report. Glenn glanced up at him,

"What is it?" He asked,

"It's Commander Nova sir, he's dead and the prisoner has escaped," the guard reported,

Commander Glenn looked at the guard in surprise,

"Commander Nova is dead?"

"Yes sir, he was shot,"

Max Glenn rose to his feet,

"Show me," he ordered,

"Yes sir,"

"I knew we needed to look at security, I told Nova that our security was too weak," Glenn cursed as he followed the guard out of his office.

Kerr Logan darted out of the building followed closely by Roxy and Danial, they looked around, a police transport was heading their way but it turned into a parking garage to the relief of the group. Logan took a quick look at the service transport,

"Get in here, we'll drive back to the ship," he ordered,

"You can drive one of these?" Roxy asked him as she climbed into the transports cab,

"No problem," Logan said as he took to the controls and started up the engine.

The three of them made themselves comfortable as Logan pulled the transport away from the command centre, the transport jerked and bounced as Logan steered it onto the main road and drove off, the only people to see them leave were the service engineers when they came back to their transport to collect more equipment for the work they were doing, not even the police transport gave chase, it simply pulled into the garages behind the building, Logan couldn't believe how easy it had been, Danial kept an eye on any possible pursuit but it never came, the journey to the Arien was plain sailing.

"Danial, call the ship and let them know we are on our way," Logan ordered,

"Ship, what ship?" Roxy asked,

"We have ourselves a new ship. It's not quite in the same league as the Freedom but it will have to do," Logan said with a happy smile as Danial spoke into the

wrist communicator that he wore,

Roxy returned Logan's smile with her own, it was so good to see him again, she had been close to giving up on being with him, but feeling his presence earlier had lifted her spirits and given her hope.

Commander Glenn stood over the body of Nova, he felt sorry for his colleague but nothing more. Glenn looked around the room, one guard was dead and the other was only injured and was now being tended to by Jennine, Max Glenn took a deep breath as a guard stood by his side, waiting to give a report.

"Report," Glenn ordered,

"We have eleven dead and two injured sir, the prisoners belongings have been taken but nothing else. The prisoner and her two accomplices have stolen a service transport and escaped. Do you wish to inform all patrols sir?"

"No, let them go, I don't think that we will be hearing from them again," Glenn said as he was about the leave the room,

"But sir, they were from the rebellion," the guard protested,

"Who told you that?" Glenn asked,

"It's what I heard sir," the guard replied,

"You heard wrong, it was a case of mistaken identity," Glenn countered, he would have to cover up this embarrassment, a lot of peoples jobs, including his own were on the line because of this, he had to make sure that no one knew that it was a rebel that they held here.

"Do you understand me?" Glenn asked,

"Yes sir," the guard replied,

"Good." Glenn said as he left the room and made his way back to his office to compile his report.

The service engineering transport pulled up under the Arien, Ironside was already waiting at the foot of the entry ramp as Logan climbed out, Roxy passed him Orac as Danial appeared from the other side of the transport and headed to the ship, Logan set Orac on the ground before helping Roxy from the transport.

"Thank you my sweet," Roxy said quietly, smiling warmly,

Logan smiled at her as he picked up Orac,

"You're welcome my peach," he whispered,

"You made it," Ironside said happily as he saw Roxy,

"It was easier than we thought." Logan said.

"Too damned easy," Danial grumbled as he walked on passed Ironside and ascended the ramp,

"How's the ship?" Logan asked as he, Roxy and Ironside followed Danial up the ramp,

"As flight worthy as we can get it," Ironside answered,

"By the way it's good seeing you again Roxy," the scientist and medic said with a smile,

Roxy smiled, it felt good to be seen, she looked at Ironside and immediately remembered him from Septer Prime,

"It's good seeing you again Ironside,"

"If the ship is flight worthy I think we should leave right now," Logan said as Ironside brushed his hand over the entry ramp controls.

The ramp began to rise as they headed to the flight deck, Samantha had over heard him and sat at the flight controls, already beginning the launch cycle.

"Everyone take your seats, let's get off this rock," Samantha said, like Logan she was hoping to get as far away from Wanta as she could.

The new crew of the starship Arien took to the flight positions and secured their safety harnesses. Logan looked to Roxy who was sat at the flight console beside him, they smiled at each other, Logan knew that only their capsules had landed on Wanta, that meant that John Blake was somewhere else, Logan decided there and then that he wouldn't search for Blake, instead Blake would have to find him.

"Okay Samantha, take us up," Logan ordered,

"Yes sir," Samantha replied with a smirk as she set the flight program.

The Arien lifted off the ground and rose into the sky, with a burst of drive plasma the ship lifted into the freedom of space. Samantha monitored the controls, she couldn't help but feel glad that Logan and his companion was with her, hopefully Logan was going to take charge, she needed a break, a chance to unwind, for the first time since bringing the Arien down onto Wanta Samantha felt relaxed. 

With the Arien in flight a tired Roxy was walking to Logan’s quarters from her new cabin, she stopped when Samantha stepped out of her sleeping quarters, looking more relaxed now she had showered and changed into a light grey jumpsuit, as Roxy passed she stopped and turned to the short haired brunette,

“Tell me Sam, why are we using the crews quarters and not using the passenger quarters above?”

Samantha King sighed, she put her hands on her hips and said sombrely,

“Most of my friends were up there when we got hit by that piece of space debris, most likely a remnant from your battle with the Federation onboard the Freedom, after the hull breach they got sucked into space, only myself, Ironside, Danial and three others were down here when it happened, I have no intention to ever go up there again, and given that it is likely to have been radiated it’s not safe anyway, unless you want to repair that hole and irradiate every surface up there, I wouldn’t bother,”

Samantha turned and walked off to the recreation room, Roxy wished she hadn’t asked now, she took a deep breath and continued to Logan’s cabin.

Kerr Logan was sat at a table in his new quarters, holding his head in his hands, he still had a thumper of a headache. The chime of his door rang out, it sounded loud to his ears.

"Enter," he called out through his hands.

The door hissed open and closed as Roxy walked in, Logan knew it was her before even looking up to her, the sound of her foot steps and the smell of her perfume was distinctively hers. Roxy was now wearing black skin tight satin leggings with a wide black belt around her little waist and a white long sleeved blouse, she sat beside Logan, groaning as she did,

“I feel exhausted,” she sighed as she put an arm around Logan’s shoulders and gave Logan a warm and caring smile,

"Your head still hurting?" She asked softly,

Logan uncovered his face and looked into Roxy's loving green eyes, he nodded,

“Yeah,”

"My poor Kerr," Roxy said with a smile as she gently placed her other hand on his thigh and stroked him.

“I guess its all the stress of the last few days,” he surmised,

“We have dealt with a lot, I don’t know how I’ve coped with it to be honest,” Roxy confessed,

“Me too,”

Logan let out a sigh, his head ached, the light in his room was too bright for him but the lighting only had two settings, on or off, Roxy had said that she would change that for him but she had been too busy working on more important ship systems.

"So how are you feeling?" Roxy asked,

"If it wasn't for my head I'd be okay," Logan said with a half hearted smile as he sat back,

“We lost the base, the Freedom, Blake, Karla and Simpson, all in one day,” Logan stated as he looked into Roxy’s tired but caring eyes,

“It’s horrible to think about,” Roxy said softly,

“Yeah. Blake explained to me why Simpson was the way he was with you,”

“He was a jerk,” the blonde snapped,

“Blake said, just before the incident with you Simpson found out his ex-wife and his two kids had died,” Logan stated as he gently stroked Roxy’s thigh,

“That’s awful,” Roxy replied, she hadn’t known,

“Simpson broke down on Blake, he was in a bad way, got drunk and then saw you, apparently he had lost everything and saw you as a way of making himself feel better,” Logan retold the brief conversation he had with Blake when they were trying to find out why the Freedom’s hull sensors were not working,

“He could have gone about it a better way though,” Roxy snapped,

“I know, I just thought I should tell you, that’s all,”

“Thanks,” Roxy said, it gave her another perspective on those events,

“I didn’t like the guy but he didn’t deserve to die,” she confessed,

“Say’s the woman who held him at sabre point, you did threaten to kill him,” Logan said with a smirk,

“That was different, I wouldn’t have done it, I don’t think,” the young woman answered, frowning curiously, not really knowing if she could have followed through with her threat,

“You’ve certainly changed over the last year,”

“I’ve had too, the girl I was would never of made it through this last year, but I’m not the only one,” Roxy said as she looked Logan right in the eye,

“You’re not the same as the man I met on G.P either, remember you threaten to kill me, twice,” she added, highlighting that fact by putting two fingers in the air,

“I don’t think I’ll ever be doing that again” Logan said with a smirk,

“Would you have followed through with that?” Roxy asked,

“Maybe, probably,” Logan answered,

“But as you say, I not that man anymore,” he added in his defence,

“I know, I couldn’t love that man, I do love you,” Roxy said with the warmest smile,

“I love you too,” Logan said before leaning toward Roxy and giving her a tender kiss,

As their lips parted Logan looked down at his hand which was gently stroking Roxy’s thigh,

“Your leggings are very silky,”

“They are very comfortable and I think they look good on me,” Roxy said with a smile as she watched his hand as it glided over the tight, silky black fabric,

“You make them look amazing,” Logan said with a smile,

“Thank you,” Roxy was happy to receive the compliment,

“Also I think you’ll agree they make my bum look good too,” she added with a playful giggle,

“On that I’ll have to see,” he said with glowing eyes, speaking to Roxy was taking his mind off of his headache,

“Very soon,” Roxy teased,

For a moment they sat together, no words were spoken as they gently stroked each others thighs, Roxy’s eyes following her own hand, feeling his strong leg through the material of his trousers, Logan’s hand was gently moving a little further between her silken legs, Roxy’s eyes turned to watch as it moved a little higher up her thigh, she felt a tingling sensation wash over her, her breathing became a little deeper, her body reacting to his hands gentle touch, suddenly panicked, Roxy grabbed his hand, her mind almost shouting at her to stop, Logan quickly looked into her distressed eyes as he moved his hand slowly away,

“Sorry,” he said apologetically

Roxy looked away from him, she moved her hand from his leg, made a fist and hit the top of the table,

“You shouldn’t be apologising to me,” she cursed,

“Not to bring up bad memories for you, but I know what you’ve been through,” Logan stated softly,

Roxy hung her head,

“In my heart I want to jump into your bed and make love all day, but my bloody head wont let me,”

“At least we both feel the same way,” Logan said with sympathy,

“I’m so messed up,” Roxy said despairingly,

“With good cause,” Logan said softly as he held Roxy in his arms,

She held onto him, she could almost cry,

“I’m in love with you,” she stated,

“I want to be able to show that,” she added as she looked into Logan’s loving eyes,

“We’ll get there,” he told her with a warm smile,

“How did I deserve to have you?” Roxy asked, Logan’s understanding was amazing,

“I ask myself the same about you,” Logan replied,

Roxy placed her palm on Logan’s cheek, her saddened eye’s looking into his, seeing a man who managed to fill her heart with joy,

“Maybe I shouldn’t wear clothes that tease you too much?” She offered,

Logan smirked as he gently brushed some strands of hair from Roxy’s face,

“You could but it wouldn’t change anything, it’s the woman in the clothes, not the clothes I want,”

Roxy smiled, her mood now brightened,

“You are the best thing that has happen to me for a very long time, you give me something to aim for, something to fight for, when I woke after Septer Prime I think I saw you for the very first time, and you blew me away,” Logan told Roxy with a calmest of voices,

Roxy shook her head, her heart reached out to him,

“It was the same for me when I saw you laying there in the airlock, I’m sure my heart sang when you woke,”

“You are very important to me, remember that” she added,

“I feel the same, so you remember that too,”

“Thank you,” Roxy said with all her heart,

“I’ll always be here for you,” she said assuredly,

Roxy gently took his hand and kissed his palm, for a moment they sat looking into each others eyes, as if reassuring each other how they felt, Logan took a deep breath as his mind turned its attention to his new crewmates,

"How are the others?" Logan asked,

"Just fine, they are just getting on with the work you asked them to do," Roxy said warmly,

"It seems as if you are in charge now,"

"It appears that way," Logan replied softly,

Roxy smiled, she looked into his handsome hazel eyes as she stood up, placing her

hand on his broad shoulder, after recent events Roxy needed to be with him. Logan's eyes studied Roxy, she looked stunning, her outfit displayed her perfect curvy figure, her leggings shiny fabric reflecting the rooms lights which only seemed to enhance the blondes eye catching shape, he smiled and rose to his feet and took her into his arms, the blonde snuggled up to him, she hooked her arms under his, holding the back of his shoulders with her palms, it felt so good to be this close to him, after the last few days they hadn't been able to spend much time together, they had missed each other terribly. Logan pulled Roxy very close, his hands rested on the small of her back as he kissed her tenderly, the kiss tasted good, Roxy tingled exquisitely as Logan's arms held her tight, she moved her hands from his shoulders to his chest, caressing him lovingly, she loved the way he felt, how firm and strong he was and yet with Roxy he was so gentle, he would never harm her, he would always protect her, Roxy felt safe at last. After a long kiss they slowly pulled their lips apart, they looked into each other's glowing eyes, their hearts still pounded excitedly and their breathing was deep.

"I missed you," Logan said as he held Roxy against him,

"I missed you too, I was so scared that I might not see you again," Roxy said as she rested the side of her face onto Logan's comfortable chest, her eyes glowing,

"I know what you mean, I was scared too," Logan replied softly before kissing the top of Roxy's head.

"I love you," she cooed,

"I love you too, my peach," Logan replied with a smile,

Roxy gently pulled away from the embrace,

"I've got a bit more work to do so I better get it finished, then I’ll deal with your light switch, I’ll see you later," she said softly as she looked into Logan's warm and loving eyes,

"I'm looking forward to it already," Logan replied

“Maybe the work will take my mind off of this frustration, until my head said no, that was feeling really good,” Roxy said, looking into eyes that showed her so much love, even with the pain in his head hurting him,

“My body hasn’t had those feelings for a very long time,” she added

“I guess that could be a good thing,” Logan suggested,

“I hope so,” Roxy said with a smile as Logan let go of Roxy who then walked to the door with Logan’s eyes transfixed by her teasing walk, she glanced over her shoulder, knowing that his eyes were following her, admiring her, it excited her,

“You’re right, those leggings do make your ass look amazing,” Logan said as she reached the door and opened it,

“Told you,” Roxy replied happily before she stepped into the passage way, she stopped and turned back to Logan, offering him a warm and loving smile.

"Take care," she said soothingly,

"I will," Logan said with a smile as the door closed.

Logan turned and walked to the window, he looked out at the stars, his mind preoccupied with Roxy, he still couldn't believe how lucky he was to have her as a lover, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known and he had the privilege to hold her and run his hands over her gorgeous body, he couldn't take her out of his mind, not that he wanted to. While he watched the stars dreaming of Roxy he noticed another reflection appear on the window, Logan turned to see Confusers standing by the door, the short man was wearing the same white robes that he had been wearing the day they first met.

"What do you want?" Logan asked,

"I'm just making sure that you understand what you need to do," Confusers said as he stepped closer to Logan.

Logan looked hard into the man’s narrow eyes,

"I know what I have to do," he snapped, pointing at himself,

"I don't need you telling me," Logan added firmly,

"You haven't made much progress yet," Confusers said as he scratched the thatch of black hair that capped the top of his rounded head,

"I'm no longer with Blake, I now have more control on what I can do," Logan stated as he held on to his throbbing head, arguing made his head worse,

Confusers gave Logan a quizzical look,

"What is wrong with you?"

"Just an old fashioned tension headache," the pilot replied quietly,

"I can't have a little thing like that slowing you down," Confusers said as he placed his hand on Logan's head and he looked into the human's eyes.

Logan gave Confusers a scornful look but soon his headache disappeared.

"Now get on with the job at hand, I will contact you shortly." Confusers said before fading away in front of Logan.

Kerr Logan nodded and sighed,

"No problem, I hope," he said worriedly as he turned to the window and looked out into the stars, he had a very big responsibility and he wasn't sure if he was up to the task. 

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Eight

Return To Action

Space Commander Liza Ford is on route to Saint Portia Major to deal with the security arrangements for President Sleer's arrival. With the rebellion now being reorganised under the leadership of Kerr Avon, the civil war is set to continue.

Kerr Logan and Roxy Davis are in the relative safety of the starship Arien, but the ship proves not to be as reliable as the Freedom as the ship begins to experience serious problems as major systems fail.

Logan sees that the planet Saint Portia Major is their only hope but little does Kerr Logan know that once again he will soon come face to face with Lisa Ford...

Across the vastness of space three Federation Hunter Killer mark twelve pursuit ships flew into sector eight approaching the Federation planet of Saint Portia Major. Onboard the lead pursuit ship and sitting in a small white sparsely decorated office, Liza Ford sat at a computer bank watching a monitor that displayed the final moments of the rebel ship Freedom, through out the journey to Saint Portia Major she had been watching the same vis-disc, still the destruction of the Freedom didn't sit right with her and every time she watched the battle footage her conviction grew, she was sure that the remaining crew members of the Freedom had survived. As Liza rewound the vis-disc to just before the Freedoms destruction an officer entered her office,

"Ma'am, we will be entering the orbit of Saint Portia Major within the hour," the officer reported.

Liza looked away from the screen, to the tall and lean looking officer named Miles Drayson and gave him a faint smile,

"Thank you."

The officer nodded an acknowledgement, as he was about to leave he noticed what she was watching,

"Going over that again Commander?" He enquired,

Liza nodded,

"I still not happy with it,"

"I would be if I was you, you destroyed the Freedom, you should be happy about it,"

Liza Ford smirked, true she had destroyed the mighty Freedom but she felt that some of her crew were still alive, she had known Logan for years, she knew that with him anything was possible,

"The Freedom is destroyed, there is no doubt about that but its crew I'm not so sure about,"

"Oh come on Commander, who could have survived that?" Officer Miles Drayson protested.

Liza turned back to the screen, she set the vis-disc to quarter speed and increased the picture definition, what she saw had seemed like the many times that she had watched the video, maybe the crew had died with the ship, maybe she was fretting over nothing. Liza shut the screen off and rose to her feet,

"Maybe you are right, I've gone over that disc for the last month, if they had survived we would have heard from them by now," she said as she passed Drayson and walked out of the office, Drayson followed her to the flight deck.

Liza Ford took to the commanders seat that was stationed in the centre of the small flight deck, between the ships five flight positions, with flight controls and navigation in front of her, weapons control to her right and ships systems control and communications to her left, she tried to push the thoughts of the Freedom and its crew out of her head but still that doubt remained, she sighed, one day she will find out the truth, but for some reason she dreaded it. 

Kerr Logan stood on the flight deck of the Arien, he was dressed in a black jump-suit and sleeveless jacket, he looked around the small room that consisted of nothing more than two rows of computer banks and flight control positions that were positioned in front of six flight seats, all coloured a dowdy grey shade with yellow markings, all of the walls were featureless except for where the Slave computer had been installed and where the main vision screen hung, all in all the flight deck was rather dull especially compared with the Freedom. The crew were still sleeping, it was early morning Earth time, Logan was always the first to rise, he turned on the heel of his old tatty flight boots and walked to the main flight controls and sat down, he checked over the monitors, detectors were clear, all monitors showed empty space. Logan nodded and sat back, he looked to the Slave computer,

"Slave, systems check," he ordered,

"ER, ALL SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONING, AT LEAST WITH SOME LEVEL OF POWER, MASTER," the computer replied apologetically,

Logan smiled, Slave amused him and it always seemed to panic every time it was given an order.

"Slave, give me your assessment of the Arien's viability as a space travelling vessel,"

"IT IS BEYOND MY HUMBLE CAPABILITIES TO OFFER AN OPINION MASTER," Slave humbly replied,

"WELL OF COURSE IT IS, YOU ARE, AND ALWAYS WILL BE AN INFERIOR SYSTEM," Orac snapped tetchily,

"WHEN YOU WERE INSTALLED ON THE SCORPIO, YOU WERE JUST AS INFERIOR, I AM ABLE TO OFFER A BETTER OPINION ON THE ARIENS VIABILITY THAN YOU ARE," Orac added,

"THE MASTER ASKED FOR MY OPINION, NOT YOURS," Slave retorted,

"DO NOT TALK BACK TO ME SLAVE, YOU ARE TRYING TO OVERRIDE A SUPERIOR SYSTEM, BE QUIET," Orac bit back.

Slave rattled in its housing but said no more, to Logan it appeared to be disgruntled.

"Okay Orac, you tell me," Logan ordered,

"THE ARIEN WILL NEED A REFIT IF IT IS TO REMAIN FLIGHT WORTHY. THE DRIVE CYLINDER WILL NEED REPLACING, THE FLIGHT SYSTEMS WILL REQUIRE AN OVERHAUL WHILST LIFE SUPPORT AND OTHER GENERAL SYSTEMS NEED REWIRING, ALSO THE MAIN BALLAST TANK HAS CRACKED AGAIN, I SUGGEST THAT IT SHOULD BE REPLACED,"

"Find a suitable place were we can get supplies and deal with the repairs," Logan ordered,

"SUITABLE WILL MEAN NEAREST, THE SHIPS VIABILITY IS DECREASING AT A CONSTANT LEVEL, WITHIN A FEW DAYS THE ARIEN WILL BE IN AN IRREPARABLE STATE,"

"Very well Orac, the nearest place,"

"THE MOST SUITABLE PLANET WILL BE SAINT PORTIA MAJOR,"

Logan rose out of the flight seat and gave the computer a hard glare,

"No other places available to us?" He asked,

"NO," Orac said abruptly,

"Well I know one thing, the others aren't going to like going to a Federation planet," Logan said as he turned to the exit and headed out of the flight deck,

"Orac, maintain a watch on the detector systems, alert me to anything Federation appears on the scanners," Logan ordered over his shoulder.

Orac remained silent, it didn't like doing this kind of work when there was a number of mysteries in the universe for it to explore.

Danial Carson entered the recreation room that was just across the corridor from his cabin, he wore a dark grey jacket and trouser outfit and a black sweater, he walked over to an old food dispenser and selected his breakfast, a bowl of muesli and a glass of apple juice, he waited as Roxy walked in,

"Morning," Roxy said as she joined Danial by the dispenser,

"Morning," Danial flatly replied, the dispenser gurgled and pinged before Danial's breakfast appeared, the former Federation captain collected his meal and walked to the nearest table and sat down to enjoy his meal.

Roxy selected her own meal, muesli with sliced banana and hot coffee as Danial screamed out,

"This is pineapple juice, can’t that damned machine anything right?"

Roxy smirked as her meal appeared, the machine has supplied her the correct meal,

"It must not like you Danial, although I can understand why, my breakfast is fine," she said with a laugh,

"Don't mock me Roxy," Danial warned as he threw his glass of pineapple juice across the room, it hit the wall, the glass smashed, sending glass particles in all directions and spilling the juice over the floor, 

"I hope you are going to clear that up?" Roxy snapped, pointing to the puddle of juice and smashed glass,

"Sod you Roxy," Danial retorted as he stood, leaving his breakfast and he headed to the doorway, he stopped when Kerr Logan walked in,

Logan smiled at Roxy as she sat down at the table that Danial had just left, she looked as beautiful as always, dressed in a tight fitting and figure revealing black cat-suit, black ankle boots and a wide belt worn tight around her tiny waist, Logan took a deep breath, his heart was racing excitedly, she looked gorgeous. Roxy looked him up and down, even with his scruffy hair, the stubble on his chin and his old Federation flight boots, he was handsome, she felt good just being in the same room as him, Roxy gave Logan a warm smile as their eyes met,

"I want you and the others on the flight deck as soon as possible, we have something to discuss,"

"Like what?" Danial enquired, sounding bad tempered as he turned to Logan with his arms crossed,

"Join me on the flight deck and I will tell you," Logan replied with a smile,

Danial simply gave Logan a disgruntled glare.

"Kerr, what's up?" Roxy asked softly,

"With this ship, everything," Logan replied with a smile before leaving the room.

Danial followed him out as Samantha and Ironside entered the recreation room, Samantha was wearing a beige jump suit and cropped jacket while Ironside wore a green and white one-piece outfit and sleeveless vest. 

"Looks like we are going to have to eat pretty fast, Kerr wants us all in the flight deck," Roxy said before she took a mouthful of her muesli that tasted good,

"Do you know why?" Ironside asked as he selected a bacon sandwich from the food dispenser,

"I don't know," Roxy replied,

"However it could be something about the ship," she added.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Samantha said with a smirk,

Ironside turned to her after collecting his sandwich, he held it up to her,

"This should have been a bacon sandwich, this is a turkey sandwich," he said tetchily,

"I've told you many times that this machine isn't working properly," Ironside snapped as he walked to the table where Roxy was sat and joined her, Roxy simply smiled, the dispenser always seemed to work for her but not for the others.

A Federation command shuttle hovered above the floor of the main military hanger on Saint Portia Major, standing by the control office waiting was a six feet tall, slightly over weight officer with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, he stood at attention, his uniform was the epitome of the pride that he had in the Federation, all the creases were where they should be, his masked helmet, that he held under his arm was well polished and sparkled in the hangers bright lighting. The officer watched as the shuttle lowered onto the floor, the deafening roar of the shuttles drives silenced, only to be replaced with the small retro jets as it came to rest on its three landing gears, with a grunt of grating metal and a final blast from the retros, the hanger became silent. The officer straightened as the shuttles entry ramp lowered, within the shuttle the officer could see movement, once the ramp touched the floor Space Commander Liza Ford stepped out, she walked with a very feminine grace, one foot always being placed in front of the other giving her a beautiful elegance, Liza made the plain black Federation uniform look beautiful, she smiled at the waiting Base Commander,

"Greetings Commander Ford," the Base Commander said firmly, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt, Liza's reputation proceeded her, she was the officer who brought about the downfall of the invincible John Blake and the Freedom, she had an intimidating presence,

"I trust you had a safe flight?" He added,

"I did indeed Commander Culley," Liza replied with eyes glowing,

Commander Culley joined Liza's side as she headed to the control office,

"I hope that everything has been arranged for the arrival of President Sleer," Liza said calmly,

"Everything is as you wanted it, the hanger staff have been fully briefed, the route to the presidential palace has been cordoned off and the palace has been thoroughly checked for any possible terrorist devices, I've also taken the liberty of doubling security," Commander Culley reported as the two officers walked through the control offices,

"Good thinking Commander, however I would like security trebled, I do not want to have the slightest problem,"

"I'll arrange it for you,"

"Good, I'll be heading to my quarters, in half an hour I will be wanting to speak to you in regards to the honour guard for the presidents arrival," Liza said as she rounded a corner from the control offices and entered the main structure of Saint Portia Majors Federation command centre,

"Yes sir," Culley replied,

Liza stopped and turned to Culley, her eyes showed her annoyance, she never liked being called sir, Commander Culley stopped and turned to her, looking curious,

"Refer to me as Commander or ma'am, not sir," Liza stated firmly,

"Yes ma'am."

Liza smiled, turned and continued with Commander Culley further into the command centre. 

Danial turned to Logan in disgust, his blue eyes flashed with rage,

"You have to be joking," he snarled,

Logan sat at the flight controls with his arms crossed, his eyes following Danial around the flight deck,

"I'm dead serious,"

"You'll be dead if we go there, Saint Portia Major is a Federation planet,"

"I am aware of that, the next nearest planet is the independent world of Pera,”

"Then why go to Major, it would be suicide?" Danial pressed,

"We have no other choice, this ship is close to complete mechanical and electrical breakdown, Saint Portia Major is the closest planet with the facilities that we need,"

"It doesn't mean that we have to go there, I am sure that Pera is good option," Danial replied,

"Don't you think that I would have thought of that?" Logan asked,

"As you say, Saint Portia Major is a Federation planet, it also has a construction and repair facility for private and commercial starships, we would use that facility not the Federation yards," Logan added as he stood up from his flight seat and walked to Orac, Danial's eyes followed him,

"Orac, what is the likelihood of this ship reaching the planet Pera?" Kerr Logan asked,

"HIGHLY UNLIKELY, THE ARIEN IS CLOSE TO HAVING A TOTAL SYSTEMS FAILURE, POWER TO ALL SHIP SYSTEMS IS CLOSE TO BEING EXHAUSTED, A NEW REGENERATION CAPACITOR IS URGENTLY REQUIRED AS IS THE NEED FOR REWIRING THE LIFE SUPPORT AND FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS," Orac responded,

The crew looked at each other, Samantha was just as concerned as Logan but going to Saint Portia Major or any other Federation world was out of the question. Ironside looked worried, the news wasn't good, even Roxy was concerned, Logan looked at them all in turn, from Samantha to Ironside and then from Danial to Roxy, all were glancing at each other looking for answers,

"Well?" Logan pressed,

"I don't like the idea," Ironside said worriedly,

"The idea of what, going to a Federation world or the state of the ship?" Logan pressed,

"Both," Ironside replied,

"I'm not too keen on going to Saint Portia Major either, I think that we should try and get to Pera," Samantha suggested,

"I agree, it would be too dangerous to go to Saint Portia Major, I mean, you and Roxy are supposed to be dead but Ironside, Samantha and I are still on the Federations wanted list and at the moment I am not up to fighting just yet," Danial said firmly to Logan,

"What about you?" Logan asked Roxy, hoping that the woman he loved would back him,

Roxy took a deep breath, she could understand why Logan would want to go to Saint Portia Major, in Logan's opinion it was in the best interest of the group to do so, however she also understood the others reservations and even though she and Logan were considered dead by the Federation and the fact that she loved him dearly she wasn't willing to take that chance,

"I'm afraid I support the views of the others Kerr, we can't take the risk of going to Saint Portia Major."

Logan couldn't believe it, he thought that he could always count on Roxy for support and backing,

"It is too risky not to go to Saint Portia Major, this ship is unlikely to reach Pera," Logan stated firmly, trying to persuade the group to go along with him,

"The decision has been made Logan, we are going to Pera," Samantha said firmly as she turned to the ships computer,

"Slave, change our course heading to the planet Pera, maximum speed."

"COURSE AND SPEED LAID IN AS YOU COMMANDED MADAM, I HOPE THAT IS SATISFACTORY FOR YOU?" The computer responded nervously.

"You fools," Logan snapped before he stormed out of the flight deck,

Danial turned to Samantha and smiled,

"We will soon find out who the fool is when we get to Pera," he said coldly,

Roxy looked around the flight deck as the other three took to their flight positions, she felt uneasy in disagreeing with Logan, so far in their relationship they hadn't had any arguments, she knew that things were now going to change, she took another deep breath before heading out of the flight deck.

Kerr Logan was marching to his cabin as Roxy rushed after him,

"Kerr," she called out.

Logan stopped by his door and turned to her,

"What the hell was that all about?" Logan asked though clenched teeth,

"I thought I had your backing," he snapped,

"You have," Roxy replied as she stood in front of him,

"You have a funny way of showing it," Logan bit back,

"I just don't think that it is a good idea right now to go to a Federation planet, we have to think of the others," Roxy stated firmly,

"I was thinking of the others, this ship will not reach Pera, I've already looked into that possibility with Orac. All systems will crash before we get anywhere near it," Logan countered,

"I wasn't just doing it for my benefit," he added,

"I didn't think that you were, I know you better than that,"

"Then why turn against me?" Logan asked, looking a little stunned,

"I wasn't turning against you I just don't agree with your suggestion. I am in love you but I'm not going to follow you blindly, if you ask me to do something that I disagree with I won't do it," Roxy countered,

"I thought that I was leading this group?" Logan asked as he pointed to himself, eyes flashing with anger,

"You more or less are, but you have to listen to the others, you can't just take over and expect everyone to follow you in everything you want us to do, if that is the case we might as well join the Federation because that is the way they do things and if we turn into them there is no point in fighting,"

"Are you implying that I'm too hard on them?" Logan asked, pointing to the flight deck, his voice raising as his rage grew,

"No, but we are a small group of people with our own needs, I am sure that they will follow you if they like your ideas, but you can't force yourself on them, it would only distance you from them and that isn't a good thing," Roxy said, trying to bring some logic to the conversation whilst trying not to offend Logan in any way.

Kerr Logan let out a sigh, he hit the small control pad by his door which opened and giving Roxy a hard look he turned and walked into his cabin, closing the door behind him. Roxy thought about following him but she knew that deep down it would not help the situation, she hung her head and returned to the flight deck with a heavy heart, feeling worse than she did before speaking to Logan. Danial watched as

Roxy walked back into the flight deck, he could see her sadness,

"I guess Logan didn't take it too well," he said with a smirk,

Roxy gave him an evil look,

"Fakk off Danial." 

Liza Ford sat at a desk in a command office that had been temporarily set up for her to use while she was on Saint Portia Major, it was a fairly big room lit by strips of growing rods on the ceiling, its light grey colouring giving the office an appearance of being larger than it actually was, she went about placing some personal items on the desk, one laminated picture of her mother and father, a duelling statuette, an old Federation law book and a long silver cylinder with a sensor pad etched into its side and a holographic projector funnel on one end, it was mounted on a wooden plinth, it was a sabre, identical to the one Roxy owned, Liza looked at it for a while, she remembered the day it was given to her by her late uncle, it was her reward for winning a duelling competition at the first attempt, with the sabre as a reward she had all the enthusiasm she needed to win, she had proved to be quite a natural at it. Sitting opposite her was Base Commander Culley, he sat quietly as Liza began to go over the security arrangements on the monitor that was built into the desk top, things looked good.

"I'm impressed. You've only held your current position for a few months but it seems as if you have done the job for years," Liza said approvingly as she turned her attention to the dark haired officer who sat opposite her.

"Thank you ma'am, I like to think that I'm capable in doing a thorough job," Base Commander Culley replied,

"You certainly can, well done," Liza said before returning her attention to the screen and looking over the honour guard list that Commander Culley had prepared.

"I don't see any problems with the honour guard, you have my approval. Call all of the officers and brief them on what will be required of them,"

"Will do."

Liza shut off the screen and sat back, she smiled at Culley before reaching across the desk to a small decanter of wine,

"Would you like to have a glass wine Commander?" Liza offered,

"Not while I'm on duty ma'am," Culley said with a smile,

"Your loss," Liza stated as she poured herself a glass. 

The flight to the planet Pera was a long one, all of the crew of the Arien except for Danial were in their quarters, Danial was sat alone on the flight deck, sitting at the detector controls, he was bored. Danial looked across the small flight deck, his eyes fell on Orac which was strapped to a table, the computer was a very useful tool, it could access any computer system, even those with new Micrel cell. 

Danial rose to his feet, straightened his flight suit before walking to Orac, for years Danial had searched for information in regards to his natural family line, Orac could help him with his search. Danial stood over the computer and inserted the activation key, Orac began to buzz to itself as Danial took a deep breath,

"Orac, I want you to do a little job for me,"

"A LITTLE JOB? I AM VERY BUSY AT THE MOMENT, EXPLORING THE THEORETICAL POSSIBILITIES OF DARK MATTER, I DO NOT WISH TO BE INTERRUPTED," Orac snapped,

"We don't always get what we want Orac," Danial said bluntly,

"VERY WELL, WHAT IS THIS LITTLE JOB THAT YOU WANT ME TO DO?"

"That's better, I prefer it when you are being compliant. I want you to go into the Federation central clinic records of childbirth during the year of forty-seven. Also I want you to go through the adoption records of the same year and cross refer them to any adoption made by Martin and Leia Carson," Danial instructed,

"DO I GET THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR YOUR BLOOD RELATIVES?" Orac questioned,

"That's right Orac, can you do it?"

"OF COURSE I CAN DO IT, ALL I NEED TO DO IS SEARCH THROUGH THE LINES OF INFINITY AND PRODUCE A RATIONAL PATH FROM WHICH WOULD ARRIVE AT YOUR BIRTH, IT IS QUITE SIMPLE REALLY,"

"Good, get on with it then. One thing Orac, do not inform anyone of this, is that clear?" Danial said firmly,

"I WILL PLACE THIS SEARCH PROGRAM UNDER THE CLOSED FILE NAME OF CARSON SEARCH, PLEASE USE THAT REFERENCE TO OBTAIN ANY INFORMATION THAT I DISCOVER, I WILL NOT INFORM YOU IN ANY OTHER WAY,"

"Thank you Orac," Danial said before removing Orac's key.

The former Federation covert operation officer stood over the computer, he remembered his adopted parents, they had been good people, he had always thought of them as his real parents as they had treated him like he was their own son, they hadn't been able to have any of their own, his adopted father was a Federation fleet admiral and his adopted mother served as an ambassador for the Administration, because of their public and political standing Danial had lived a privileged life, living amongst the highest level of alpha grades on Earth, he could do anything he wanted, no one could stand in his way, not even the security forces, Danial had always tried to become known as Carson but because he was adopted he wasn't entitled to purely on the basis that it was not his natural name, to this day Danial still remembered the day when he had received the call informing him of his parents demise at the hands of the rebellion, Danial had from that day decided to destroy the rebellion, that was until he discovered a report in Supreme Commander Nixon's office, whilst he back on Earth that implicated the elite forces in his parents death in some kind of political cover up, Danial became disillusioned with the Federation and grew angry at Nixon, that gave him all the reason that he needed to serve the rebellion, to bring down the Federation, even if it took the final drop of his blood to do so. Danial Carson turned and walked back to the detector controls, he cleared his head of his adopted parents and let out a sigh,

"I'll find my real parents eventually and then they will be sorry." 

Suddenly one of the ships alarms went off, Danial turned to the Slave computer,

"What is the problem Slave?" He asked authoritatively,

"I'M SO SORRY TO HAVE TO REPORT THIS BUT THE BALLAST TANK HAS RUPTURED AGAIN SIR, ALSO THE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS IS MALFUNCTIONING," Slave reported,

"Damn," Danial cursed as he rushed to the nearest intercom, the flight deck became dark as the main lighting cut out, only because of the emergency lighting was Danial able to see anything,

"Everyone, to the flight deck immediately."

Another alarm sounded,

"Report,"

"THE FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS ARE NO LONGER FUNCTIONING SIR, I AM UNABLE TO DETECT THE DRIVE CONTROLLERS. I FEAR THAT THE COMPUTER CONDUITS HAVE BECOME DISCONNECTED SIR."

"What's the problem, why all the alarms and why are the lights out?" Roxy asked as she ran into the flight deck, closely followed by Ironside and Samantha,

"We've just lost all flight controls, Slave has lost contact with the drive systems and life support is failing, also the ballast tank has ruptured again," Danial reported as he checked over the ship systems control board, all indicator lights were flashing red,

"It looks like we have a complete systems failure on our hands," Danial cursed as Logan walked in.

Logan walked to Danial's side and looked over the control boards flashing array of indicators, he had already noticed that the ship was becoming colder,

"Roxy, go down to control room one and work on the life support, get it working, we don't have much time," he ordered,

Roxy nodded and rushed out as Logan turned to Samantha,

"Go down to the drive chambers, see what you can do to reconnect Slave to the drive controls and then get the drives back on line,"

"Right," Samantha King replied before heading out of the flight deck,

"Ironside, I want you to help her," Logan aid as he turned to the taller man,

"On my way,"

Logan watched Ironside leave before turning to Danial,

"I'm going to work on the flight controls, I want you to work on the ballast tank,"

"That means I have to go into the ballast tank, do you know what it is like swimming in ballast fluid?" Danial protested,

"Yes Danial I do, now get to work," Logan ordered,

"We will only get this ship functioning again if we work together, remember that." Kerr Logan snapped, glaring at Danial with obvious rage, his breath was now beginning to form a mist in front of his face.

Danial gave Logan a hard embittered look, he then turned and reluctantly obeyed his instructions, as he walked to the ballast tank entry hatch Logan said under his breath but loud enough for Danial to hear him,

"We would have been at Saint Portia Major by now if we had chosen to go there in the first place, this whole incident could have been avoided."

Danial removed the entry hatch, the revolting smell of the ballast fluid rose up into his nostrils making him wince, he looked up at Logan and gave him an evil stare as the pilot got on with repairing the flight controls,

"I'll remember his Logan, don't doubt it," he seethed.

Liza Ford was stood up, dressed in full military parade dress,

Commander Culley was stood by her side, they were standing ahead of the honour guard that formed two perfectly straight lines, all dressed in Federation parade dress of black and gold with their assault rifles held across their chests. Liza looked up into the sky at the descending command shuttle, she had never seen President Sleer in the flesh before and this was the first time that she had been placed in command of such an important operation, she took a deep, controlling breath, it seemed strange to her but she had never been this worried before, this nervous, not even in the company of Supreme Commander Nixon. The shuttles retros fired as it lowered onto the landing bay floor, the landing gear groaned as they took the shuttles heavy weight, the landing ramp opened and six crimson and gold dressed Federation special forces troopers appeared, they descended the ramp, three on either side and they stood at attention, joining the honour guard that Liza had assembled before the President of the Terran Federation made her way down the ramp, Liza felt herself shudder, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and her heart raced as President Sleer came into view, Liza had followed the life of the President for years, Sleer was her inspiration and now Liza was face to face with her, she was a tall woman with short black and grey streaked hair and wide brown eyes which was accompanied with a wide smile as her eyes fell on Liza, Sleer wore an elegant, ankle length black and silver dress with a big platinum broach worn on the dresses only sleeve,

"Space Commander Ford I assume," Sleer said in her very confident and beautiful voice,

"I am, Madam President," Liza replied respectfully,

"I am glad that Supreme Commander Nixon had the decency of placing you in charge of my security, I have watched your rise in the ranks of the Federation with interest," Sleer said as she joined Liza's side and continued to walk between the lines of her honour guard, she looked at each and every officer, nodding approvingly at each one as she passed.

Liza walked by her side and Commander Culley kept at a discrete distance behind them.

"I must admit that I'm surprised in your interest Madam President," Liza said calmly, she was a bag of nerves inside, she hoped not to let Sleer see how nervous she was,

"I see that you will make a fine Supreme Commander one day, maybe even my successor as President of the Federation," Sleer said with unexpected warmth,

Liza smiled, her heart was still racing but it was not as fast now, Liza was beginning to relax, 

"I hope that you had a safe journey," Liza said, sounding sincere,

"I did indeed, was it your idea to have a fleet of battle cruisers to meet me at the border of the star system?" Sleer asked,

"It was," Liza replied,

"That is why I rate you as a good officer Liza, you have an eye for detail, it was you who destroyed what was becoming the most serious threat to the Federation in years, the Freedom, you have my thanks," Sleer said as she continued to walk forward, Liza stayed by her side as they entered the control offices.

Roxy Davis stood away from the mess that was the life support system, things didn't look good but she had solved the problem and got the system back on line but only just. Kerr Logan approached her,

"How are things going?" He asked,

"Could be better, it is not a recommended solution to use the lighting power connectors as conduits for life support, but it will do until we get a replacement," Roxy said as she gathered her tools and slotted them back into her wallet,

"The life support is operational now?" Logan asked,

"Online and functioning as it should be but I can't tell you how long it will last, how about the flight and drive systems?" Roxy queried as she turned to him,

"Samantha has got the drives reconnected and back online and I've got the instrumentation functioning again, Danial has sealed the crack in the ballast tank and topped it up with more ballast fluid," Logan replied,

"Maybe going to Saint Portia Major is a good idea, I can't guarantee this," Roxy suggested as she waved her hand at the life support system,

"As I said in the first place," Logan said as he handed Roxy the life support cover plate which she snapped into place.

Roxy turned to him, there was an "I told you so" tone in his voice, it felt as if it was directed at her,

"It sounded a bad idea at the time," she said defensively,

"Not now it isn't," Logan replied as the two of them walked out of the control room and headed to the flight deck,

"So I have your backing now?" He asked,

"Yeah," Roxy replied in a sigh,

"Thank you," Logan said, sounding genuine, he smiled at her, Roxy felt that familiar excited stirring inside, she returned his warm smile with her own,

"Now we tell the others," he added as he patted Roxy gently on her back, she smiled, it felt good to be on the same side again,

"I think that they will agree after this," Roxy stated smiling broadly, feeling slightly better inside now,

"They better do," Logan replied sternly.

President Sleer walked around her private office within the Presidential palace, she looked around the large white and gold decorated room, it was an exact replica of her office on Earth, Sleer had requested it,

"I hope that everything is to your satisfaction?" Liza asked who was stood at ease by the office door,

"Everything is fine Liza, just fine," Sleer said as she sat down at her large teak desk, she turned her eyes to Liza Ford,

"I would like to have the Kerr Avon file downloaded onto this console," she ordered,

"I've already taken the liberty Madam President," Liza replied,

"Officer thinking Liza," Sleer replied with a smile,

"Is there anything else you would like?"

"No thank you Liza, you have been more than kind, I have a series of meetings shortly, work must interfere, however I'm sure that we could meet later for an informal dinner perhaps," Sleer suggested,

"I would be delighted," Liza replied,

"You may go,"

"Thank you Madam President," Liza said before opening the office door and stepping outside and closing the door behind her.

Kerr Logan stormed into the flight deck, Roxy was close behind, she smirked when she saw Danial, he was covered head to foot in vial smelling black ballast fluid,

"Now that's an improvement," she quipped,

Danial gave her an evil glare. Samantha and Ironside were standing by the Slave computer, Logan had called all of them to the flight deck. Kerr Logan stood at the flight controls, his arms crossed and his eyes boring down on all of his crew,

"I hope that you have realised the stupidity of your actions and your decision not to go to the planet Saint Portia Major. I told you that this ship wouldn't reach Pera," Logan said, sounding angry,

"I don't like being in situations that risk my life and with losing our life support system we were close to that," he added,

"It's all operating now, we can continue on our way to Pera,"

Danial Carson stated firmly,

"How many lives are you willing to risk Danial, only yours or all of ours?" Logan retorted,

"Going to Saint Portia Major is a risk to our lives," Danial countered,

"At least we have more of a chance against the Federation than we do against the possibility of another total systems crash, we may not be so lucky next time," Kerr Logan reasoned,

Danial remained quiet, he didn't have an answer for that.

"Okay, do we go to Saint Portia Major or do we continue on route to Pera?" Logan asked as he looked around the flight deck, at the other members of the crew,

"Very well Logan, let's do it," Samantha conceded,

Danial gave her a hard disgusted look,

"I'm with you too," Roxy said with a half hearted smile, she still didn't like the idea but Roxy knew that it was the best option,

"Three against two is it?" Logan asked Ironside,

Ironside gave Logan a sheepish look and a half smile,

"Four against one I think," he said, although he didn't sound too happy about it,

"Well then, let's go," Logan said with a wide victorious smile,

"Slave, set course to Saint Portia Major, maximum available speed."

Danial looked away in disgust and headed out of the flight deck, he needed to change out of his clothes, the ballast fluid was getting very sticky as it dried and it smelt terrible.

The Arien appeared over Saint Portia Major space, ahead of the rebel ship was a large Federation battle fleet consisting of twenty ships, Logan watched the fleet in the forward viewer, he hadn't seen such a mass of warships since the day the Freedom was destroyed, it sent a shudder right through him, the others all sat at their flight positions, all transfixed by the mass of Federation ships that were on the screen, all looked to Logan as he brought the ship closer to the planet, he had the look of total concentration and calm, it was strangely comforting to see. On the main view screen Logan could see commercial freighters and private vessels flying to and from the planet, all keeping their distance from the Federation fleet, Logan decided to turn the ship closer to the fleet, hopefully conveying to the Federation Fleet Admiral that he had nothing to hide, the manoeuvre scared everyone on the flight deck, 

"I hope you know what you are doing Logan?" Samantha said worriedly,

"I knew it was crazy to go here." Danial said, still making his objections clear,

"I hope they don't get any crazy ideas about shooting us down, in this heap we wouldn't stand a chance," Roxy said, staring at the screen, she also remembered that final day onboard the Freedom, at times she wondered if she had actually got over it yet,

"It'll be okay, I've done this kind of thing before, trust me," Logan said, trying to put the worries of his crew to rest,

"I'll trust you once we have done what we came here to do and we have gotten out of here," Ironside said, sounding faint.

At that moment the communications system came alive with the sound of a deep male voice,

"This is Saint Portia Major control to unidentified vessel, identify yourselves,"

Logan took a deep breath as the others looked on, all looking worried,

"This is the privateer vessel Arien requesting landing permission in the commercial zone to action much needed repairs and possible systems overhaul," Logan replied as surely as he could,

"Starship Arien, this is control, please give us your name,"

Roxy studied Logan, he seemed quite taken a back at being asked such a question,

"I am Captain Kellogue, I'm coming from sector eight, planet Wanta," Logan replied,

There was a long silence, obviously the controller was checking up on his story, the others waited, Lyle Ironside found his palms sweating, Roxy was gripping the arm rests of her flight seat and Samantha was sat at the edge of her seat, only Danial and Logan showed any signs of composure. With a suddenness that made the crew jump the controller responded,

"Captain Kellogue this is control, you have access to landing pad six within the commercial zone, welcome to planet Saint Portia Major."

"Thank you," Logan replied before cutting off the communication. 

There was a collective sigh of relief amongst the crew, even Danial seemed surprised,

"Who is Captain Kellogue?" Roxy asked,

"An old smuggling alias of mine, I haven't used it for a few years," Logan replied as he brought the ship down to the planet surface, passing the twenty strong Federation battle fleet,

"Something must be going on here to have so many Federation ships in the area," Danial said as he looked at the Federation vessels that they passed,

"Maybe they are on manoeuvres or something," Roxy offered,

"No, this is something bigger," Danial replied,

Logan nodded, his eyes checked over as many of the Federation warships as they could and he soon recognised one, the Presidents personal battle cruiser,

"Oh no, Servalan is here," he said in a gasp,

"Servalan, she's dead Logan, she has been since the rear guard action during the battle of the Gedden," Danial said informatively,

"No Danial, Servalan is alive and well, Kerr Avon once told me she is living quite comfortably in the guise of President Sleer,"

Logan answered to a surprised Danial,

"Oh boy," Roxy said weakly,

"What do you mean, oh boy?" Ironside asked,

"It means that security is going to be tighter," Danial said,

"Maybe Pera wasn't such a bad idea after all?" He asked Logan,

"Can't we turn back?" Ironside asked,

"No, we can't. They know we are here now, if we turn back now they will become suspicious and probably shoot us down," Logan stated,

"How do you know that?" Ironside asked, sounding scared,

Logan turned to Ironside and gave him a hard look,

"I know because I would shoot us down, now calm down Ironside, we all need clear heads for this, we can't have you panicking while we are on the surface, we stick to the plan and things will be just fine."

The Arien flew passed the battle fleet and entered the atmosphere on its approach to surface of the planet.

Liza Ford entered Commander Culley's office, he was working on his daily log,

"Anything to report?" Liza asked curiously,

Culley looked up from his report and shrugged his shoulders,

"Nothing much, just the arrival of some beat up old interstellar cruiser needing some repair work done, apart from that there is nothing to report," Culley said firmly,

"Good, then I'll have a nap, contact me if anything out of the ordinary happens," Liza ordered,

"Yes ma'am," Commander Culley replied.

Samantha King stepped down the entry ramp of the Arien, she scanned the area, four other ships of various types and classifications littered the commercial zone, repair teams worked on them, one of the ships, a mark two interstellar planet hopper looked worse than the Arien, as though it was on its last legs, Samantha took a deep breath, the air smelt good for a starship construction and repair zone, far better than the stale air of the Arien, she saw a woman who looked to be in her early thirties wearing a white and grey coverall walking towards her, Samantha knew the procedures in places like these, this woman would be their liaison officer, as the woman drew nearer Samantha recognised her, it was an old friend of hers, one she had met on Earth a few years ago, her name was Maria Karrad. Maria's lips turned into a smile as she recognised Samantha,

"Oh my, Samantha, what the hell are you doing here?"

Samantha smiled as Maria stood in front of her,

"It's good seeing you again Maria."

The two women hugged,

"I heard that you were now in the rebellion," Maria said softly,

"I heard that too, but I'm only a freelance trader," Samantha replied, sticking to the story that Logan had briefed her in,

"So what are you doing here?" Maria asked as she stepped around Samantha and looked up at the ship,

"The ship needs some repairs, I'll be needing a lot of supplies, the drive cylinder is shot to pieces, life support needs replacing and I'll be needing a new ballast tank," Samantha explained,

"It looks as if this whole ship should be replaced," Maria said as she turned to Samantha, not noticing as Roxy made her way down the entry ramp,

"It should be but we can't afford it, oh, and by the way, we also need a new food and drinks dispenser" Samantha replied with a smile as she watched Roxy, the blonde had tied her hair back into a pony tail and she carried a listing of electrical component's and tools that she needed, Roxy joined her comrade as Samantha introduced her to Maria,

"Roxanne, this is Maria, an old friend of mine from Earth,"

"Charmed," Roxy said as Maria offered the blonde her hand.

So as not to draw any unwanted attention Roxy took her hand and gave her a friendly smile,

"Good to meet you," Maria said warmly,

"Has Samantha told you what we are going to need?" Roxy asked,

"Briefly, yes," Maria replied,

"Good, shall we get on with it,"

"Certainly, right this way," Maria said as she began to walk towards what appeared to be a registry office.

Logan walked around the flight deck, he stopped in front of Slave and switched the computer off, Danial stood by the flight controls, his arms crossed as he watched Logan walk out of the flight deck saying,

"I'm going to connect the power and ballast umbilical, You two get to work,"

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Danial said to Ironside who was beginning to remove a cover plate that hid the component trays under the Slave computer,

"The one who leads us I guess," Ironside replied as he turned to Danial,

"And you can tolerate that?" Danial asked,

"If he thinks of our well being as he plans things for us to do then yes, I can," Ironside replied,

"Fool,"

"If I remember rightly Danial, it was your foolish idea to go to Pera wasn't it?" Ironside said pointedly,

"Shut up Ironside," Danial snapped,

"Why don't you shut it and get to work, we have a few hard days work ahead of us,"

Danial shot an angry glare in Ironside's direction but the other man was now half buried in the mass of electrical wiring and component trays, Danial's anger faded as he turned away from Ironside and walked out of the flight deck. 

Samantha, Roxy and Maria Karrad entered the registry office, Maria picked up a service report and filled in the basic requirements of the job to be commenced, she then passed the works order over to Samantha,

"Could you sign and date the areas that I've marked please," Maria asked,

"No problem," Samantha replied.

Roxy looked around the large open planed office, Maria must have been the only woman to work in this office, as Samantha filled in the necessary documentation Roxy noticed that most of the men in the office were looking at her, Roxy turned away from them, she had chosen scruffy pale green overalls to wear in a hope of not drawing too much attention, it didn’t seem to be working, although Roxy was certain most of these over weight, balding or very hairy and unclean men had never been with a woman before so seeing any woman would arouse their attention,

"Where would I find the electrical stores?" Roxy asked bluntly,

Maria looked at her, smiled and reached across the registry desk, collected a sheet of paper and passed it to Roxy, it was a map of the area,

"That will tell you. Once you have got all that you need bring it here and one of the officers here will make a note of everything you have taken,"

"Thanks," Roxy said, studying the map.

Before Roxy could leave, a tall officer with thin greying hair and narrow eyes stopped her, he pointed at her sabre that Roxy wore clipped on her belt,

"You cannot take weapons in here," he said firmly as if to try and intimidate Roxy,

"It's not a weapon it's a laser lance, it's one of the new models out, it's for soldering," Roxy replied coolly as she gave the sabre a gentle pat before marching out.

Samantha and Maria didn't see the exchange, they were continuing to fill in form after form,

"Impatient isn't she?" Maria said to Samantha,

"Don't worry about it, it's just her way, she just wants to get the job done, we had a few hair raising moments on the way here,"

"Like what?" Maria asked, for her the most hair raising moment in her job was if a component was taken from the premises without being registered, or a works order was not filled in correctly,

"We lost our drive systems and life support on the way here, and also the ballast tank cracked. If it wasn't for Roxanne I'd be dead now," Samantha said informatively,

"Wow, that must have been scary," Maria said breathlessly,

"We had no time to worry, we had to get the ship working again, nothing else mattered," Samantha replied,

Maria took a deep breath, she could only imagine what it must have been like on a ship without any kind of power, it must have been frightening.

"Come on, let's get what you need," she said with a smile,

Maria and Samantha walked out of the registry offices and into the main corridor, almost as far as the eye could see on both sides of the passage, all that could be seen was rows upon rows of large double doors,

"How long have you been working here?" Samantha asked,

"More or less a year after you left Earth,” Maria replied as the two women walked down the wide open corridor, trying to avoid the many pilots and engineers that were busying themselves in and out of the supplies bays,

"Are you still with Stevenson?" Samantha asked,

"I left him before I departed for this place, it wasn't a pleasant experience. I cried through it all and cried some more when I was on the transport heading out of Earth, however we still keep in contact," Maria replied,

"How is he?"

"Fine, he got married last month, to Clare Weston,"

"No, you're kiddin' me, Clare Weston, that spotty faced bimbo," Samantha laughed,

"I thought that he had better tastes,"

"I thought so too, I mean before he and I became an item he kept hitting on you didn't he," Maria said with a smile, it was good talking about the old days,

"I didn't fall for that charm of his, you did," Samantha said, pointing at Maria,

"I'll tell you this much, it was worth it. He was great in bed, you have no idea what you missed out on," Maria said beaming,

"Yeah, well, he wasn't my type. I was more keen on Serra," Samantha said smirking,

"Serra, that stud?" Maria asked in astonishment,

"Yeah, he was sweet and a gentleman to boot,"

"Why didn't you do anything about it?" Maria questioned,

"I was too nervous, every time we were together I just couldn't string a sentence together and I couldn't look him in the eye without blushing, it was terrible," Samantha said, who was blushing at the mere mention of his name,

"I heard that he had a thing for you too," Maria stated,

"Get out of here, Serra could have any woman he wanted," Samantha protested,

"He didn't get you though did he?" Maria reasoned,

"If he tried, I would most definitely of been his," Samantha said, smiling happily, thankful for the time she could spend with Maria, being with her brought it all back, it was a life that she sometimes missed but she had to fight the Federation, to avenge her home planet of Merrcia Prime, or Gauda Two as the Federation now call it after they had conquered the planet ten years ago and annexed it four years later.

Roxy stepped into the electrical main stores, she was taken a back by its size and how busy it was, it was a huge warehouse, possibly the ten times the size of the silo back on Domserrat and there must have been over one hundred lines of racking, each stood over eight meters tall with over one hundred shelves on each

depending on the product that was stored on each shelf, and everything was stored in alphabetic or numeric order, standing by each line of racking was a mobile remote controlled ladder, Roxy took a deep breath, she looked at her list and then looked at the shelving in front of her,

"Where do I start?" She asked herself as she watched as a group of engineers climbed up and down ladders, gathering up components in large buckets, Roxy surmised that this whole storage area must be used by everyone on the planet. One thing Roxy was quick in noticing as she walked down between two lines of racking was the fact that all the part numbers were of the Federations universal numbering system, that would make her job at identifying what she wanted easier.

"Let's get to work Roxy," the blonde said with a smile as she walked further into the warehouse, she began to receive whistles and comments about her body from men that she passed, some even went as far as saying what they would want to do to her, a group of four sweaty and unattractive workers wanted to have sex with her all at once in a number of different positions, this was one thing that Roxy was never shocked with, no matter how evolved man would think it was, once a woman entered a male dominated environment men would in most cases revert to the crudest levels, she had worked on Earth and Gauda Prime in male dominated workforces and was used to such comments, Roxy simply smiled, shrugged her shoulders and continued on her way forward, looking for her first part.

Walking in the opposite direct Roxy noticed a beautiful tall brunette, her long hair flowing behind her gracefully as she walked with a sophisticated poise, the brunette wore a skin tight sleeveless shiny rubber cat-suit and perfectly polished spiked healed boots, the brunette glanced at Roxy and smiled warmly, as she passed Roxy she spoke with a quite warmth,

“Hello Roxanne,”

Roxy suddenly stopped in her tracks as the tall brunette continued on her way, she too was receiving the same whistles and comments as Roxy had earlier, the woman turned around, and while walking backwards, somehow managing to avoid everyone behind her said called out,

“Don’t worry, I’m not supposed to be here either,”

The brunette offered Roxy a glowing smile before turning around and disappearing around a corner, leaving Roxy feeling a little perplexed. 

Liza Ford sat back and wiped the corners of her lips with a white napkin, she had just enjoyed a three course meal with the company of President Sleer. The President raised her hand and a delta grade waiter, dressed in twentieth century waiters clothing of a black two piece suit, white shirt and a black tie, all finished off with a serving towel hanging over his right forearm entered the large banqueting hall and began to clear the table of the crystal sweet bowls and cutlery. Sleer rose from the table and walked across the hall to one of the four glass doors that lined the outer wall, Liza's eyes followed her.

"That was delicious," Liza said as the President stood by the glass doors and looked outside,

"I enjoyed it too," Sleer enthused as she turned to Liza and gave her a wide smile.

President Sleer looked at the framework of the glass doors, the glass was marked with the makers name, Armourglassic, the best that money could buy, she smiled and turned her attention outside, from where the palace was located the construction yards could not been seen, they were hidden behind the skyline of hill tops and a forest, between the palace and the hills was the city of Saint Portia, the planets capital, at

the moment it was autumn over Saint Portia, Sleer took a deep breath, she liked this time of year, it reminded her of the time she spent on Earth as she studied in the F.S.A while using her true identity Servalan, hoping one day to become the Federations Supreme Commander, her quest for power had forced her to push aside a number of things in her life, like Keller for one, the only man she had truly loved, but he had left her, he found it hard to compete with her desire to succeed in the Federation, he later lead a research team to the sand planet of Virn where he had died, killed by the sand, there was so many things that she had wanted to tell him, she wanted him to know how much she had loved him, to inform him of the fact that he became a father but she hadn't been able to, the work got in the way and she had given her only child up for adoption.

"Are you okay Madam President?" Liza asked, sensing the change of mood within the other woman,

"I'm fine," Sleer replied with her wide smile, casting her thoughts out of her mind,

"Thank you for your concern," she added.

Liza stood up and walked to the Presidents side, the dinning table was now completely clear,

"I understand that you come here often,"

"I do, I travel here every year, I like it here, it is so far away from the troubles of Earth and the duties of the Federation. I can actually relax while I'm here," Sleer replied,

"You call reading up on Kerr Avon relaxing?" Liza asked with a smile,

"You can never know enough about your enemy, and Avon is one that I fear most. He is very likely to be a greater threat than Roj Blake ever was, particularly since he took over the control of the rebellion from Avalon, he is the reason why we lost the worlds that we had won back earlier this year, he is to be feared," Sleer replied seriously,

"You fear him?" Liza sounded surprised,

"I know him, that gives me all the reason I need to fear him," Sleer said as she turned to Liza,

"Surely there is someone that you fear?" Sleer asked her,

"There was once, I destroyed him," Liza replied,

"Who was this man?"

"A rebel named Kerr Logan, he was onboard the Freedom when it was destroyed," Liza replied,

Sleer smiled and turned back to the view outside,

"Do not ever underestimate your most feared enemy, they always have the knack of reappearing," Sleer warned, remembering the day when she had heard of the return of Kerr Avon,

"I don't, for some reason I have always thought that he would reappear,"

"Then you are probably right, be careful, other officers will take advantage of you if you are correct, guard against them and bring them down, they are people you can never trust. As I have said Liza, I expect that it will be you who will succeed me, I don't want Nixon taking over the presidency, he is a good officer but he will not make a good president, you on the other hand will, don't disappoint me," Sleer said calmly.

Liza nodded, there seemed to be a melancholy feel about her words, as if she was expecting something bad to happen very shortly,

"Are you sure you're okay?" Liza asked,

"I'm fine, please Liza, I would like to be left alone,"

"As you wish Madam President," Liza said before turning and walking out.

Sleer took a deep breath, deep down she had one of those feelings, one that had warned her against coming to Saint Portia Major while she was still on Earth, she had chose to ignore it but it was with her again, she let out a sigh,

"What is it Sleer, why do you feel this way?"

Danial Carson walked into the flight deck, the repair crews were now working on the outside of the ship and in the drive chamber, leaving the flight deck empty, he walked to Orac that was placed onto a glass topped table, buzzing quietly to itself, Danial set his hands onto Orac's outer housing and asked,

"Orac, have you found the information that I asked you to find?"

"WHAT IS THE PASS CODE?" Orac snapped,

"Carson search," Danial replied,

"CORRECT, I HAVE NOW OBTAINED THE INFORMATION THAT YOU HAVE REQUESTED. YOUR FATHER WAS NAMED KELLER, A HIGHLY DECORATED PLANETARY RESEARCH OFFICER FOR THE FEDERATION,"

"Was named, are you telling me that he is dead?" Danial asked,

"THAT IS CORRECT, HE DIED ON THE PLANET VIRN APPROXIMATELY EIGHT AND A HALF YEARS AGO. YOUR MOTHER WAS A F.S.A GRADUATE WHO LATER WENT ON TO RULE THE FEDERATION, HER NAME IS SERVALAN," Orac announced,

Danial's eyes widened, he held on to Orac tighter as the thought of being Servalan's son sank in,

"Are you sure Orac?" He asked, staring into nothingness,

"WELL OF COURSE I AM." Orac replied tetchily,

Danial let out a shaky breath,

"Servalan is now known as Sleer and she is on this planet,"

Danial smiled, he would go and see her, confront her with the fact that he was her son, Danial knew of most Federation security procedures, the majority of them he actually created, it wouldn't be too difficult to penetrate security and find Sleer,

"Oh Sleer, you better have a good explanation to why you gave me up," he said as he removed Orac's key and set it down on top of the computers housing.

Danial Carson turned to the exit and headed out of the flight deck, he was met on the way but Kerr Logan,

"Where are you going?" Logan asked,

"That is none of your business," Danial snapped before walking down the landing ramp and disappearing out of Logan's view.

Logan continued walking to the flight deck,

"Kerr," Roxy called out from behind him,

Logan smiled as he turned,

"Yes my peach,"

Roxy smirked and blushed,

"I'm gonna need to get hold of some more components, I missed some items that I had put on my list that will be needed to create the teleport," she said with a wide smile,

"Get what you need and come straight back, I intend to leave very soon," Logan instructed,

"I won't be too long, don't miss me too much," Roxy said grinning as she turned and headed to the entry ramp,

"I'm missing you already," Logan said with a smile,

Roxy looked over her shoulder and blew her lover a kiss, she gave him a cheeky grin before turning down onto the entry ramp and disappearing out of view.

Liza Ford returned to her office, she walked over to a small drinks dispenser and requested a hot chocolate drink, the dispenser gurgled for a while before producing a cup of Liza's favourite hot beverage, she picked it up and took a sip from it, it was hot and it tasted good,

"Perfect," she said as she walked over to her desk and sat down on the chair that stood by her desk,

Liza set her cup down and danced her hand over the computer keyboard, the monitor lit up showing messages that were addressed to her, Liza read them whilst drinking her hot chocolate, there were three messages, one from security giving her a run down of events on Saint Portia Major, nothing much of any interest was happening, another message was from her mother to contact her as soon as she could and the third was from Supreme Commander Nixon, giving Liza her next assignment, Liza shut the monitor down and she turned her attention to her sabre, she reached across the table and removed it from the wooden plinth, she sat back and studied it as the door chime sounded,

"Enter," Liza commanded.

The office door slid open and a tall, grey haired man with narrow eyes stepped in, he was wearing the uniform of an officer from the commercial registry office,

"Yes officer, how can I help you?" Liza asked,

"I have the duty officers report for you as requested," he replied as he walked to her desk and stood before Liza, offering a report pad to her.

Liza smiled, placed her sabre handle onto her desktop and took the report, she began to read it as the officer studied the sabre,

"You have a new model laser lance too, I didn't think that you were also an engineer?" He asked curiously,

"What are you talking about?" Liza questioned as she turned her attention to him,

"That," he replied, pointing at the sabre,

"That isn't a laser lance it is a weapon known as a sabre," Liza replied mockingly,

"What made you think that it was a laser lance?" She asked,

"A woman from a starship we are working on had one, she said it was a laser lance," he explained.

Suddenly Liza's mind was working overtime, she had been told by her uncle that there was only two sabres in existence, she had one of them and Cral Davis, the father of Roxanne Davis had the other one, she suddenly thought of Roxy,

"Describe this woman to me," she demanded,

"Well, she was about five feet tall, blonde hair and green eyes, very slim and she had the accent of a beta graded Earther," he said, thinking hard to remember all he could about the woman, it wasn't too difficult as the woman was beautiful, 

"Roxy Davis," Liza said as she dropped the report pad, collected her sabre and stood up,

"Where is she now?"

"In the commercial electrical stores,"

Liza nodded and headed to the door, the officer watched her curiously,

"The report ma'am?" He asked,

"I'll read it later," Liza replied as she marched out of the office.

Roxy walked between the high shelving of the electrical stores, she had most of what she had written on her list, there were only had one more part that she needed to get hold of before she could return to the ship, she stopped, seeing a number on one storage box that looked familiar and checked it against her list, it was the part she needed, Roxy stepped closer to the box, reached inside and took out the part, it was a focal laser gem, used for digital holographic projection, she pushed it into her pocket, marked it down on her list and was about to move on when she saw someone in the corner of her eye, she turned to see Liza Ford standing with her sabre in her right hand, the silver blade fully extended,

"I never imagined that I would see you again," Liza said as she stepped closer the blonde,

"I thought that I had killed you when the Freedom was destroyed," she added,

"Well, you can't get everything right first time can you?" Roxy said sarcastically as she stepped backward, not really wanting to fight this woman who had murdered her father, Roxy hadn't been aware that Liza was the other person to have a sabre and by the way Liza walked toward her, with absolute confidence she didn't feel as if she was good enough to duel with the Space Commander just yet,

"True, but at least I get a second chance to finish the job. Draw your sabre Roxy, I'm sure that you would want to protect yourself and try and make a fight of this," Liza countered,

"I mean, I am the one who killed you father," she added, hoping to draw Roxy into fighting.

Roxy was shaking all over, she was scared but angry, she wanted so much to kill this woman, many years ago her father put her on a duelling course but Roxy had never wanted to do it and gave up after a few sessions, she wished that she had continued with them now, Roxy dropped her parts list and unclipped her sabre from her belt, activated the blade and prepared to do battle, Liza smiled at her, she felt confident of winning, Liza had also taken up a duelling course, it was one of the most popular sports on Earth, she had stuck with it and in her first year she became Earth's female champion, she had held onto that title for three years, only stopping so she could concentrate on her career in the military, Liza saw Roxy as being nothing more than a novice, this fight will be over quite soon, Liza drew in a deep breath, slowly let it out before charging at Roxy with her sabre held high, Roxy staggered backwards as she brought her blade to meet Liza's, the force and strength of the impact caused a painful vibration to pass through Roxy's arms making her wince, this was a fight to the death, it scared the hell out of her.

President Sleer stood by the window of her office, the day was close to coming to an end, from her window she could watch the sunset, it was something that could not be enjoyed on Earth, not with the great deal of pollution in the atmosphere, the residual from the atomic wars of three hundred years ago, she sighed and turned to her desk, she stopped when she saw Danial Carson standing inside the door of her office, a gun trained on her, she looked at him curiously, for some reason she felt as if she recognised him,

"Who are you?" She asked,

Danial smirked as he took a step closer,

"A funny question coming from you Madam President, considering that fact that I once protected you from any possible assassination attempts, among other things. I am Danial Carson, ring any bells does it?"

"No, should it?" Sleer asked as she walked behind her desk, hoping to be able to press the security alarm button under the table top,

"I know what you are trying to do Madam President, pressing that security button would not be a good idea so if I was you, I would sit down and keep your hands on top of the table," Danial ordered, levelling his gun on her as he took another step closer to her,

"So, why are you here?" Sleer asked as she sat down, following Danial's order of keeping her hands on the table top,

"You would like to know wouldn't you?"

"I would not be asking if I didn't," Sleer replied, she showed no sign of worry or fear, it wasn't the first time she had been looking down the business end of a gun.

Danial stepped closer, he was now very close to the woman who was his mother,

"I'm here to get an explanation out of you,"

"What would you like me to explain?" Sleer asked coolly,

"Why you abandoned me?" Danial demanded,

"Abandoned you, I don't understand?"

"I am the son that you didn't want Servalan," Danial snapped,

Sleer's composure slipped, she looked stunned, she had given her new born son up for adoption many years ago, she hadn't expected to ever see him again, although she now knew why he looked so familiar, he was almost a spitting image of Keller when he was the same age, it had also been a long time since she had been called Servalan, all the people that used to call her that were now dead, she had made sure of that,

"Son?" Sleer gasped softly, with the look of total amazement,

"That is right Servalan," Danial confirmed,

"Are you sure?" Sleer asked, hoping that she could raise a doubt in his mind,

"Positive, Orac confirmed it, I was just as surprised as you are, I didn't think that you were human enough to even think of having a relationship with anyone other than power and Federation duty," Danial said seething,

"I wasn't always like this, I did have feelings once," Sleer said quietly, still sounding shocked,

"Those feelings were for a man named Keller," Danial said as he lent across the desk, looking the President right in the eye,

"That is right, I did love him, you were a child born out of love," Sleer explained,

"And then dumped because I would get in the way of your quest for power,"

"It wasn't like that, I was confused after Keller left me, I put all my efforts into the Federation, two months after Keller had left I found out that I was pregnant, my position in the Federation was improving, I had just been promoted to a space major, it was difficult for any woman trying to go up the chain of command, most women never got any higher than major, I wanted to prove that I could go higher still but with a child and being a single mother I would have been forced to leave the services, I couldn't go through that, I had put too much of myself into my work to have to give it all up," Sleer explained,

"So you gave me up," Danial snapped,

"It was for your own good," Sleer retorted,

"I couldn't look after you, I was never too good with my own nephews, let alone my own son. I did it for your best interests," Sleer added,

Danial walked around the table, she had nephews as well, meaning that Danial had cousins, all of a sudden his life was beginning to take shape, Sleer tried to make a move for the security button but Danial saw her and aimed his gun at her, he felt enraged, from the beginning of his life he was betrayed, and betrayed by his own mother,

"Touch that button and it will be the last thing that you do," Danial warned Sleer,

"I made sure that a good, wealthy family took you on. My son wasn't going to be adopted by any delta graded family, you had to have the best," Sleer said, trying to make Danial understand her side of the argument,

"The best would have been with living with my natural mother, not some family that you never saw," Danial said,

"My adopted parents never knew who my mother and father was, I once thought that they did know but were not going to tell me,"

"I made sure they didn't know, but at least your adopted parents were screened first, I had to make sure that you were going to a good home, where you would be loved and treated as the son they couldn't have," Sleer countered,

"And I must say that they done a good job, better than I could have done," she remarked as she watched him,

"Well, we will never know if you could have done a better job now, will we?" Danial said as he turned to the office door, he walked about half way along the office, stopped and turned to face his mother,

"My adopted mother once said to me that making mistakes was something no one could avoid, the art is to be able to live with them afterwards," Danial said as he stepped nearer to Sleer,

"Isn't it going to be a shame that you are not going to live with this mistake, and isn't it ironic that the person you gave life to is now going to take yours away Servalan," Danial snapped,

Sleer's eyes widened as Danial took aim at her,

"No son," she shouted out,

"It isn't like you to beg Servalan," Danial said as he pulled the trigger, the shot sounded, Sleer's eyes widened further as the plasma bolt hit her in the chest, she staggered, looking shocked as she fell from her chair and hit the floor.

Danial walked around the table, Sleer was trying to reach the security button, Danial smiled,

"Aren't I lucky that this office is sound proofed because no one will be coming to your aid, Madam President."

Sleer looked up at him, the pain was intense, her blood dripped through her hand as she held onto the wound trying in vain to stem the flow of blood, Danial aimed his gun at her again and fired two more shots, Sleer's body jerked with each plasma bolt that hit her, as Danial holstered his smoking pistol the President of the Terran Federation, Ruler Of The High Council, Lord Of The Inner And Outer Worlds, High Admiral Of The Galactic Fleets, Lord General Of The Six Armies and Defender Of The Earth was dead, killed by her very own son. Danial Carson looked down at her, inside, killing her made him feel a hell of a lot better,

"Revenge is sweet mother."

Danial scanned around the office, he knew that it would be foolish of him to hang around any longer than he needed to, he had to leave as unnoticed as he had been when he arrived, with security like it was in the palace and with skills like his that would be no problem.

Logan looked around the flight deck, his crew and the engineering team had all but finished the repairs and overhaul of certain ship systems, Danial was nowhere to be seen and Roxy had been gone too long for comfort, all she needed to do was to collect a few parts and with the stores warehouse being as close as it was, Logan began to worry,

"Samantha, I'll be heading to the electrical stores to see what is keeping Roxy," he said as he marched out of the flight deck.

Samantha nodded but didn't say a word as she worked on calibrating the newly installed weapons control board.

Liza Ford intensified her attack, her strength and sheer speed overwhelmed Roxy who backed away from every attack, finding it almost impossible to sustain her defence. Liza went for the killer blow, striking at Roxy's mid drift, Roxy blocked, the vibration of the two sabres impact was enough to make Roxy lose the grip of her sabre, Liza took the advantage and struck high, getting through Roxy's defence and penetrating the blondes jumpsuit, cutting into her right arm, Roxy whaled out in pain as Liza continued her attack, Roxy staggered backwards, hitting some racking that knocked her concentration further, Liza struck again, this time knocking Roxy's sabre out of her hand which fell to the floor just a few feet from where Roxy was standing, Liza smiled and went in for the kill, sensing victory. Roxy dived out of the way, but Liza still managed to catch her on the left thigh with her flailing blade, Roxy cried out in agony as she stumbled and hit the floor with a thud, Liza Ford stood over her blooded victim, the point of her sabre dancing by Roxy's throat, Roxy watched her fearfully, she was breathing hard, she was exhausted, looking at Liza it seemed to Roxy that she hadn't even broke into a sweat, Liza had beaten her, Roxy had been no match to Liza's skill, speed and experience, all Roxy expected was death,

"You are not even worthy to own a sabre, you just are not good enough, now allow me to put you out of your misery," Liza said with a victorious smile, she raised her sabre high above her head but before she could bring it down upon the petrified Roxy, a gun shot sounded.

Roxy jumped and watched with wide eyes as Liza's whole form shuddered and staggered before hitting the floor beside her, the blonde turned to see Kerr Logan standing with his gun trained on the Federation Space Commander. Liza Ford rolled onto her back holding her right shoulder, blood oozed out between her figures as Logan stood over her,

"Well well well, look who got a nice promotion for destroying the Freedom, a pity you did not complete the job," Logan said with an evil smile,

"Kill her," Roxy ordered, sounding angry and bitter,

"No, not yet," Logan replied as he lowered his gun,

"Kill her now," Roxy demanded,

"I'll leave that for you Roxy, but she won't die today. Someone has to tell the Federation that we are still alive and who better than the person who claimed have killed us," Logan said as he helped Roxy to her feet.

Liza looked into Logan's eyes, she was not too surprised to see him again, as her suspicions had tried to tell her and by what Sleer had said to her earlier, your greatest enemies always have that irritating habit of returning,

"You lack the same killer instinct that you used to have Logan, you are not even worthy of being an adversary of mine," Liza snapped,

"Maybe, maybe not, I couldn't care less. All I do know is that I will beat you again, and next time you will not be so lucky," Logan said as he pushed his gun into his holster and walked with Roxy to where her sabre had fallen, collected it and headed out of the warehouse, leaving Liza injured on the floor,

"I'll kill you Logan, and you too Roxy, you're both dead," Liza shouted after them as she tried to stand, her head began to spin, she lost her balance and slumped to the floor, she had already lost a lot of blood, she had to get help fast.

A crimson uniformed Presidential guard knocked on the door of the Presidents office, there was no reply, he knocked again and the door swung open, the guard stepped gingerly inside, looked around the office and was about to leave when he noticed a hand almost hidden by Sleer's desk, he cautiously walked over to the table, he was met by the sight of President Sleer, lying in a pool of her own blood, eyes wide open, obviously dead, he froze, he was taken by shock, he couldn't believe it, he swallowed, turned and then ran out of the office screaming,

"Sleer's dead, the President is dead." 

Kerr Logan helped Roxy Davis to the Arien, the repair crew were now gone as Samantha stood under the ship with her friend Maria Karrad,

"It has been good seeing you again Samantha," Maria said with a smile,

"Yeah, it's been fun," Samantha replied as she gave her old friend a hug,

"I hope to see you soon," Maria said quietly,

"I hope so too, these last few days haven't been long enough, there is so much I wanna know," Samantha stated,

"Don't leave it so long next time," Maria said warmly,

"I'll try not to," Samantha said as she saw Logan and Roxy approaching, Roxy looked in a bad way,

"What on earth?" Samantha gasped,

Maria turned as Logan and Roxy reached the entry ramp,

"What the hell happened to you?" Maria asked,

"Just met up with an old friend," Roxy said tiredly, trying to sound humorous,

"We've got to get her to the medical bay," Logan said as he helped Roxy up the ramp,

"You better go Maria, I don't want you taking the fall for us being here," Logan ordered,

Maria nodded, she understood why, she smiled at Samantha,

"Goodbye,"

"Yeah, see you later, hopefully," Samantha replied as she joined Logan in helping Roxy into the ship,

"Is Danial back yet?" Logan asked as Maria headed to the registry offices,

"Not yet," Samantha replied,

"Damn it, we've got to get out of here as soon as possible, the Federation knows that we are here," Logan cursed,

"There is no time like the present then,"

Logan and Samantha looked over their shoulders to see Danial running up to the entry ramp,

"Where the hell have you been?" Samantha snapped,

"Just seeing a relative of mine," Danial replied as he joined his crewmates, he actually appeared to be happy,

"And who might that be?" Logan asked as he continued taking Roxy to the medical bay,

"And why was it so important?" Samantha asked,

"That is none of your business," Danial Carson snapped as he continued into the ship,

Samantha and Logan looked at each other, both were angry with him,

"Is the ship flight worthy now?" Danial called out over his shoulder,

"Yes, all systems are ready for take off," Samantha replied,

"Good, we are leaving then," Danial stated before disappearing into the flight deck,

Logan helped Roxy onto the medical bed, she winced and groaned as she lay back on the bed with Logan's assistance,

"You're going to be okay," Logan said reassuringly, he was greatly worried about her, but he had to give the impression of being strong for her sake,

Roxy felt very faint, she took Logan's hand and gently squeezed it as she offered him a tired looking smile,

"With you by my side I know I’ll be all right,"

Logan smiled at her and then turned to Samantha who was standing by the door, he gave her a hard look,

"Help Danial with take off and get Ironside in here now."

Liza Ford staggered to the door of her temporary office, Commander Culley was sat at her desk, his face was buried in his hands, Liza held onto her blooded shoulder and made her way into the office, breathing hard as she fought against the fatigue, having lost so much blood, Culley heard her approach and looked out from behind his hands, his blood shot eyes widened, he had been crying, he wasn't having a good day,

"Commander Ford, what happened to you?" He asked as he rose to his feet and rushed to Liza's aid,

"I met up with an old adversary of mine," Liza gasped and winced as Culley put an arm around her and assisted her to his chair,

"I'll call in a medic," Culley offered as he helped Liza sit down.

Commander Culley rushed around the desk, hit the intercom button and shouted into the microphone,

"Get me a medic in Liza Fords office right now,"

He didn't wait for a reply as he cut off the communication and rushed back to Liza,

"This hasn't been a good day," he said as he ripped off the sleeve of Liza's uniform and wrapped it around her shoulder, Liza sensed that something bigger had happened than her getting injured,

"What else has happened today?" She asked between gasps,

Culley looked at her in surprise,

"Haven't you heard?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I had," Liza stated as a field medic entered the office,

"Who's hurt?" He asked without thinking,

"I am you idiot," Liza groaned,

"Sorry ma'am," the medic apologised before rushing to her and began to tend to her wound,

"So?" Liza asked Culley,

Culley took a deep breath, he swallowed to clear his throat, he appeared to be upset by whatever is was,

"President Sleer was found dead in her office today,"

"What?" Liza shouted, she couldn't believe it,

"How?" She asked,

"Assassinated, shot at close range,"

Liza stared at him with unbelieving wide eyes,

"Shot?"

"Yes ma'am," Culley confirmed,

Liza snapped out of her trance like state, her mind rushed to get everything sorted out, she had to take control of the situation, she would mourn Sleer's death later but for now she had a situation to control,

"Has Nixon been informed?" She asked,

"Not yet ma'am, I thought that it would be better coming from the highest ranking officer here," Culley replied, sounding sad, as sad as Liza felt,

"Right," Liza said nodding her head,

"Get me in touch with Supreme Commander Nixon right away," Liza ordered,

"Yes ma'am," Culley replied before rushing to the other side of the desk and hitting the intercom button again,

"Give me an outside line now," he ordered,

Liza sat back, she felt uncomfortable with the medic working on her shoulder but it was necessary, she had lost a lot of blood, she couldn't afford to lose anymore,

"Nixon is going to hit the roof when I tell him about this," she said to herself as the medic applied a healing cast on her shoulder.

The Arien headed away from the planet Saint Portia Major, safe and getting good distance from the mass of Federation battle ships that sat in orbit over the planet, its drive system worked perfectly and most ship systems where operating better than they had ever done before. Samantha King sat at the flight controls accompanied by Danial Carson, who was sat at the detector controls with an almost amused smile across his lips, accept for the sound of the drive system and the humming of Orac, the flight deck was absolutely silent, that was until Logan stormed in,

"What the hell did you go and kill the President for, now every Federation ship will be on the look out for us," he snapped as he angrily marched over to Danial Carson,

"It was personal Logan, it has nothing to do with you, its none of your business," Danial counted firmly,

"You made it my business Danial, because you have just increased our chances of being caught. She was your mother which is unfortunate but who cares, all that matters to me is the survival of this group, including you strangely enough, but if you do anything like that again I will kill you, am I making myself clear?" Logan yelled at the other man.

Danial glared at him,

"If it was something that you wanted to do, you would have done it," he counted,

"No Danial, I would not have done, Sleer was more use to us alive than dead, now Nixon could replace her and that is something that I have feared for a very long time, it could ruin everything," Logan bit back,

"Just be careful in what you do from now on Danial, that is a warning, I will not repeat myself," Logan added forcefully before turning and marching out of the flight deck.

Danial Carson turned to Samantha King with a bemused smile, he wasn't too concern about Logan or of any threat that Logan could give him and he made a display of his feelings, Samantha wasn't amused, she turned away from him in disgust, she agreed with everything that Logan had said.

Kerr Logan had calmed himself down by the time he reached to small medical room, he stood by the door and lent against the door frame, his arms crossed, watching as Ironside adjusted and readjusted the straps of a healing cast that he had wrapped around Roxy's injured thigh as she sat on the medical bed, Ironside had already covered Roxy's arm with a smaller cast. Roxy had changed out of her jumpsuit into a pair of little black shorts and a dark brown vest top so that Ironside could tend on her injuries. The former surgeon and scientist had been the ultimate professional, Logan could tell that he was a fully trained and experienced doctor of medicine, the way he tended to Roxy oozed skill and professionalism and his bedside manner was more than enough to put Roxy into a relaxed mood, she looked into Logan's hazel eyes, she smiled as Logan asked Ironside,

"How is Roxy going to be?"

"She'll be fine, it's only flesh wounds, nothing too serious, I don't think that she will scar," Ironside said as he looked into Roxy's concerned eyes,

Roxy smiled at him, hearing that made her feel a lot better,

"That is good news, thank you Ironside," she said softly,

"You're welcome," Ironside replied with a smile,

"How do the casts feel?" Ironside asked Roxy,

"Tight, they feels as if they are cutting off the blood supply to my leg and arm and I feel like I've got pins and needles," Roxy replied with a smile,

"Good, that is how it is supposed to feel, the pins and needles sensation is just the effects of the healing properties in the casts, they are showing you that they are working," Ironside said as checked the casts and nodded,

"Come back to me in three hours and I'll remove the casts," Ironside instructed,

"Okay, I'll do that," Roxy sighed,

"I'll make sure you do," Logan said with a smirk,

Ironside stood up and walked to the door,

"One more thing, if you have any problems let me know,"

"Will do," Roxy answered,

Ironside smiled and headed out of the room, Logan walked to Roxy as she tried to stand,

"Here, let me help you," Logan said as he offered Roxy his hand,

"Thank you," Roxy said as she took Logan's hand and rose to her feet, she felt giddy and lost her balance,

Logan took Roxy into his arms and held her, their eyes met, Logan’s eyes displayed his concern, her confrontation with Liza had scared him,

"It was one hell of a risk you took in fighting Liza," Logan said warmly,

"I was lucky that you came along," Roxy said as she cuddled up to her man, it was so good to be in his arms again,

"Next time you will be better than her, I promise you," Logan said as he pulled her close,

"Are you going to train me?"

"If you want me to," Logan offered,

Roxy smiled, she slid her hands onto her lovers chest and gently caressed him, she enjoyed caressing his chest, he felt firm and strong, he brought out Roxy's most feminine feelings,

"I would love you to," she said, her breathing was becoming deeper and her stomach was doing cartwheels,

Logan slid his hands onto the small of her back and held her gently, she smiled and snuggled up to him,

"I love you," Logan said warmly, his heart was pounding in his chest, Roxy could feel it against her cheek, it matched the rhythm of her own excited heart,

"I love you too," Roxy replied softly.

Roxy couldn’t help but think that if this had happened a year ago she would have been panicking and losing her mind, the last year had changed her, giving her strength she never knew she had, on top of that she was enjoying the relationship that she was building with Logan, she felt a beautiful warm tingling sensation wash over her body, being in Logan’s arms made her feel safe and loved, she gazed into his handsome hazel eyes and offered her lips to him, the former Federation officer smiled warmly before taking Roxy’s lips with his own and kissing her with the same loving tenderness that she kissed him.

Legacy Of Roj Blake

Chapter Nine

Hope And Revenge

With President Sleer dead, the Terran Federation is in a state of panic, Supreme Commander Nixon summons Space Commander Liza Ford to explain what happened on Saint Portia Major.

A call for help is intercepted by the Arien that originated from Samantha King’s home planet of Merrcia Prime, one place that Samantha is not too willing to return to.

In the shadows of Merrica Prime a Federation unit lead by a former lover of Roxanne Davis is working hard at ensuring that the former royal planet never returns to its former glories…

Roxy Davis stood by a small table, working on installing Micrel Cells into Orac to make the computer even faster at accessing Federation computers, she was wearing her favourite pair of skin tight black rubber trousers with her figure hugging brown vest top, black ankle boots and a wide black leather belt around her waist, she felt a light cramp in her left shoulder, set her laser probe down onto the table and rubbed it,

“Are you okay?” Kerr Logan asked as he entered the small flight deck, his eyes looked over Roxy approvingly,

Roxy watched Logan enter the room, dressed smartly in a light grey trouser and jacket outfit worn with a white shirt and his old Federation flight boots, he looked handsome in a scruffy kind of way,

“I think I over did it when we exercised this morning,” Roxy said as she gave her loved one a warm smile,

Logan walked behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders,

“Tell me where it aches,” he instructed,

“The left shoulder by my neck,” Roxy replied softly, still rubbing the area of discomfort,

Logan gently brushed Roxy’s long silky blonde hair over the opposite shoulder, placed his hand on the side of her neck and began to massage, her shoulder felt very tight,

“Oh, that feels good,” Roxy sighed as Logan’s hands worked on her pulled muscle,

“Good,” Logan said warmly into her ear,

“As I’ve always thought about you Kerr, you’ve got lovely hands,” Roxy cooed, she was already feeling a lot better for the massage, but then she always felt good having Logan’s hands on her body, he continued to massage her, hearing her gentle moans as his hands relieved her taut muscle brought a smile to Logan’s lips,

“I think that this was caused by your combat training, not your exercising,” Logan suggested,

“I’m still not up to speed yet am I?” Roxy said sombrely,

“You are getting better, your duelling skills have improved a hell of a lot recently, you are a lot faster and more accurate than you were before but as I said, it is going to take time, you can not expect to be an excellent fighter over night,” Logan said encouragingly,

“But I should be better than I am at the moment, it is so frustrating,” Roxy stated, sounding very low,

“Do not worry about it, you are doing just fine,” Logan responded,

“You would say that, you just don’t like saying anything bad about me,” Roxy sulked,

“That is not true, if I felt that you were not doing what I knew you could do and you weren’t truly applying yourself in the training then I would start yelling at you. I may love you but since fighting is always a matter of life and death I am not going to let you off lightly, I will train you like many cadets that I trained during my stay at the Federation Space Academy, I’m using the same principles that I used when training elite forces operatives,” Logan countered,

“And I feel that you have great potential, so stop knocking yourself,” he added,

Roxy smiled, she should have expected honestly from Logan, after their recent training session Roxy had felt dejected but now she was beginning to feel better,

“How does your shoulder feel now?” Logan asked warmly, the pain had passed, Roxy’s shoulder felt far better than it had done earlier,

“Pretty good, thank you,” she answered,

“Good,” Logan said before removing his hand from her shoulder and kissing her tenderly on the neck,

“Kerr,” Roxy gasped,

“Not here, someone could walk in and see,” she protested, they still hadn’t told anyone of their relationship although it was becoming harder not to show it,

“Very unlikely, it hasn’t passed eight o’clock, the others will not be awake yet, I think we are still on Domserrat time so we wake earlier,” Logan stated softly before kissing her neck again as his hands slipped onto Roxy’s toned stomach,

“I should get on with my work, Orac won’t be amused if I delay the installation of the Micrel Cells,” Roxy weakly protested as she felt herself wanting to turn and kiss her lover,

“Orac can wait,” Logan said as he held onto Roxy a little tighter, the blonde smiled as she reached behind and began to caress her lovers powerful thighs,

“I love you my peach,” Logan said between kisses,

“I know, I love you too,” Roxy sighed softly, she felt very sexy, she had a hold on Logan that she had never expected, Roxy pushed her body tight against Kerr’s, feeling very womanly against his hard torso, craned her neck back and to the left, offering her lips to Logan who accepted her offer by pushing his lips tenderly onto hers. Logan’s hands moved from Roxy’s flat stomach and gently cupped her heaving breasts, Roxy immediately took Logan's hands in hers but it was not to stop him, she was shocked as she did not expect that he would touch them in such an open area as the flight deck, more surprising was that Roxy was allowing it to happen, it was just one more step in their growing relationship, Logan’s big hands gently caressed her, immediately heightening her arousal as she kissed him with the same loving tenderness as he kissed her. Logan’s love for Roxy was growing, he enjoyed being with her, he found her very attractive, she was a woman who had a body that was as beautiful as her personality and character, Roxy turned in Logan’s arms, caressed her lovers strong chest as his hands slid over her buttocks, bringing a smile to her lips, they were about to kiss again when the communication system came to life with a panic filled call for help,

“This is Chifar, interplanetary minister to Merrica Prime, we need assistance, our planet is failing, we need help, can anyone hear me, please respond.”

Within a light grey hexagonal room, two white clothed engineers worked on the control board of the main teleport of Federation Space Command, waiting by the foot of the teleport platform stood Commander Cory Williams, she was dressed in full dress uniform with all the trimmings, she stood at ease with her hands behind her back, she was beginning to feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, something that always happened when she stood next to a operating teleport, the light electro-static charge always made the tiniest hairs on her body react.

“Patterns locked, transferring now,” one engineer called before pressing a series of buttons on the control board.

With a crackle of static, an image appeared on the teleport platform, it soon solidified into the form of Space Commander Liza Ford, with the teleportation process over Liza Ford ran her hands over the front of her body, making sure that the teleport had put her back together properly, she straightened her dress uniform,

“Not entirely disagreeable but I would sooner use a shuttle craft,” she said before giving Cory a calm smile,

“I had heard that you have never used a teleport before,” Cory said as Liza Ford stepped off of the platform,

“I hope never again, I do not like the idea of someone else having control of my atoms,” Liza replied as she joined Cory’s side,

Cory Williams smirked as the two women headed out of the teleport control room and into a white passage way, the first thing that Liza noticed was that security had been trebled, a Federation guard stood at every door and junction along the passage way,

“I guess that the Supreme Commander isn’t taking any risks,” she commented,

“With just cause, our president was assassinated within the walls of her very own palace, Commander Nixon does not wish to go the same way,” Cory replied sombrely,

“Understandable,” Liza said, remembering the day clearly, the presidential palace on Saint Portia Major was the most secure building within the empire but still the president was killed in her own office, the worse thing about it was the fact that Liza herself was placed in charge of the security arrangements on Saint Portia Major for the duration of the Presidents stay. That was why she was here onboard Federation Space Command, she had been summoned by Nixon to personally explain the reports that she had sent regarding President Sleer’s death,

“Nixon has asked that you see him immediately upon your arrival,” Cory said,

“I hope you are wearing temperature controlled underwear because you are going to need it, Nixon has been bouncing off the walls ever since he first heard of Sleer’s death,” she added,

“Thank you Cory, I was worried about this more than enough, now you’ve made me feel worse,” Liza said as the two women entered the command section, Liza had thought that security was tight but within the command section it was even tighter,

“He certainly is keeping himself covered,” Liza remarked,

“I told you,” Cory replied.

Danial Carson stepped into the flight deck, he was the first to respond to the internal alarm system that Logan had activated,

“What the hell is all this about?” He snapped as he fastened the front flap of his black and green jump suit,

“I will tell you the moment the others get here,” Logan said as he stood by the communications unit with Roxy at his side,

“That could be forever,” Danial said tetchily,

At that moment Samantha King and Lyle Ironside walked in, both had thrown on whatever they could as fast as they could to find out what the alarm was about,

“Good, you are all here,” Logan said with a smile,

“It did not sound as if we had a choice Logan,” Ironside said before yawning,

“What is all this about?” Samantha asked, as she tried to get into a crimson jacket that was half turned inside out,

“Damn thing,” she cursed as Logan activated the replay system on the communications board,

“This is Chifar, interplanetary minister to Merrica Prime, we need assistance, our planet is failing, we need help, can anyone hear me, please respond.”

Every one was suddenly silent, Ironside turned to Logan,

“Are we going to help?” He asked,

“That is what I was going to find out,” Logan said as he turned to Roxy,

“Both Kerr and I think that we should go to Merrica Prime and see what kind of help that we can offer them, if indeed we can,” Roxy said,

“We would like to know if you would also be willing?” Logan asked as he looked at Danial, Ironside and Samantha in turn,

“I think that we should go,” Ironside said, agreeing with Logan and Roxy,

“I’m sure that we could do better things with our time but as this should hopefully mean that we do not face the Federation and possibly gain more allies, why not?” Danial said, surprising everyone with agreeing to go,

“And how about you Samantha?” Roxy asked,

“It doesn’t matter if I wish to go does it? You have all decided to go so what does my opinion matter?” Samantha asked, sounding defeated,

“Why don’t you want to go?” Roxy asked, sensing the reservations in the other woman,

“Yeah, people need help Sam, I thought that you would jump to the chance,” Lyle Ironside said curiously,

“I don’t fancy the idea of going to Merrica Prime, it’s not as if I haven’t been there before,” Samantha snapped,

“This isn’t a matter of who has been there before Samantha,” Logan snapped, not understanding her reticence,

“No, it could be a matter of life and death for some people who are obviously in trouble," Roxy added, trying to reason with the other woman,

“I don’t want to go there, okay?” Samantha snapped firmly as she turned to leave the flight deck,

“Why don’t you want to help your own people Samantha?” Ironside called out,

Samantha King stopped walking as everyone turned to her, all as curious as Ironside now that they knew she had come from Merrcia Prime,

“You won’t understand,” Samantha said without turning round,

“If you tell us we probably will,” Roxy offered,

“I doubt it,” Samantha said before walking out of the flight deck.

Logan and Roxy turned to each other, both wearing confused frowns, not knowing why Samantha didn’t want to help the people of her home world as Ironside turned to the Slave flight computer,

“Slave, set course to the planet Merrica Prime,” he ordered,

“CERTAINLY SIR, COURSE IS LAID IN, WHAT SPEED SHALL I SET SIR?” Slave responded,

“Time distort nine,” Logan ordered,

“YES MASTER, COURSE AND SPEED LAID IN, I DO HOPE THAT IT IS TO YOUR SATISFACTION MASTER?” Slave said in a pitiful tone,

“Thank you Slave,” Logan said with a smile.

Liza Ford gingerly entered the office of Supreme Commander Jack Nixon, he was sat at his desk, going over the reports that Liza had compiled whilst on Saint Portia Major, behind him stood two black uniformed guards from the elite forces,

“You wish to see me sir,” Liza said firmly,

“Guards, leave us,” Nixon ordered, sounding calm, which un-nerved Commander Ford as she stood to attention.

The two guards quickly marched out of the office leaving Liza alone with the Supreme Commander, Liza looked nervously around the room, she didn’t like it, she reasoned that he was furious with her by the way he seemed to ignore her, that in itself wasn’t a good thing, without the two guards in the office Nixon could do what ever he wanted to do without the worry of witnesses, with that said such things had never bothered him in the past although Liza now had the sudden feeling of being watched, she had no idea by whom or by what, she silently let out a shaky breath as Nixon finally looked up at her,

“Sit down,” he ordered sharply,

Liza obeyed without saying a word. Nixon set the report pad down on his table and sat back in his big white chair,

“Your report makes for interesting reading Commander,” he said with a chilling flatness,

“Sir,” Liza found herself saying weakly,

“I trust you know why I have called you here?” Nixon said as he looked Liza right in the eye,

“I do sir,”

“Good, then I’ll cut to the chase. What the bloody hell happened on Saint Portia Major?” Nixon roared, his eyes flashed with rage,

“It is all in my report sir,” Liza replied, surprisingly remaining calm,

“Your report tells me that you were in the middle of a duel at the time of President Sleer’s death,”

“That is correct sir,” Liza said, she was still having that feeling of being watched by someone other than Nixon,

“With whom?” Nixon shouted,

“Why was fighting a person in a duel so important to you that you compromised security?” He added with venom,

“It was a personal matter sir,” Liza said as she scanned the room,

“I couldn’t care less if it was personal, is that why you omitted the name of the person you were fighting from your report?” The Supreme Commander roared,

“That was omitted because it is something that I wanted to inform you of personally sir,” Liza replied, again sounding calm which shocked Liza and surprised Nixon,

“So, tell me,” Nixon demanded,

“I was fighting someone named Roxanne Davis, one of Blake’s people,” Liza replied informatively,

“What,” Nixon shouted as he rose out of his chair and walked over to his window,

“I thought that she was dead,” he said, his voice calming down a little,

“As did I sir but that isn’t the worst of it, Kerr Logan is also alive,” Liza reported, her throat dried, she had no idea how he would respond to this news,

Nixon turned to face her, his eyes wide with surprise,

“Logan,” he asked, sounding remarkably calm,

“Yes sir,” his calmness surprised her and scared her,

Nixon returned to his desk and rested his weight upon the table top,

“Is there anything else you need to tell me Liza Ford?”

“No sir,”

“Do we know if Blake is dead or not?” Nixon asked,

“To be certain, no, but if both Roxy and Logan are alive my guess is that Blake could be too,” Liza replied,

“Could Blake be with Logan?” Nixon asked, glaring at her with accusing eyes,

“I do not think so sir, all available security camera vis-discs from the ship yards at Saint Portia indicate that Logan is, or at least could be, working on his own,” Liza answered,

“So they aren’t dead,” Nixon said gravely,

“Just as you suspected, going by what Cory Williams wrote in her report of Operation Freedom,” he added,

“Yes sir,” Liza said with a nod of the head,

“This changes everything,” Nixon said as he sat back,

“Sir?” Liza asked, she wasn’t sure on what Nixon was on about,

“I have supplied quarters for you on deck eight, room thirteen, I want to speak to you again later,” Nixon said in a friendly manner that had Liza asking more questions in her mind, she sensed that Nixon was up to something, she didn’t know what but if she knew Nixon it had to be big,

“Dismissed,” Nixon said before turning his chair around so he could look though his office window.

Liza Ford rose out of her chair, scanned the room for any detector device or one way vision glass but none was to be found, perhaps that feeling of being watched was nothing, Liza took a deep breath and headed to the door, she felt very uncertain and worried, she stepped out of the office and the door closed behind her, suddenly it dawned on her,

“He’s going for the Presidency,” she said under her breath.

Once Liza had departed a secret door to Nixon’s office slid open and a tall man who was in his late fifties entered the room, he was wearing a dark blue uniform and robe that was trimmed with gold embroidery, he walked around the office before sitting down opposite the Supreme Commander,

“Your opinion Carnell?” Nixon asked,

“She is very intelligent, young and strong. Her replies were calm, she never seemed phased by your questioning. I would say that she is the best choice for you, the others that you have spoken to lack her calm demeanour and attention to detail. Liza’s record proves it, she reminds me of a young Servalan. One other thing I noticed is that she seemed aware that I was watching her, she seemed to scan the room at every chance she got. I can say that she also knows what you are planning, although she does not know why it would involve her,” the psycho-strategist said calmly,

“Really? A very big compliment Carnell,” Nixon said with a smile,

“She deserves it Supreme Commander, if you succeed in your attempts which you should do without a doubt, she will be perfect,” Carnell said informatively,

“I hope that you are right Carnell,” Nixon said firmly, threatening the man who probably knew more about him than Nixon would want him to know,

“Trust me Supreme Commander, I am never wrong,” Carnell said with a smile. 

The Arien appeared over the planet Merrica Prime and moved into orbit over the green and blue world, Logan rose out of his flight seat as the Slave computer announced,

“THE ARIEN IS NOW IN A ONE THOUSAND SPACIAL ORBIT OF THE PLANET MERRICA PRIME MASTER,”

“Thank you Slave,” Logan said with a smile as he turned to Ironside,

“Send a message to this Chifar, tell him that we are here and we offer any help that we can,” he instructed,

Ironside nodded as he activated the external com channels,

“This is the privateer starship Arien to Chifar, interplanetary minister to Merrica Prime, we are here in response to your emergency call, please respond.”

Chifar Warsle stood by one of the windows of the former royal banquet hall of the royal palace, since the Federation pulled out of the planet, the banquet hall had been turned into the main cabinet office for the Merrica Prime’s new provisional government, Chifar served as interplanetary minister due to having greater experience in dealing with off worlders after his long term employment as an adviser to the now deceased royal family, Chifar remembered those days with a mixture of fondness and regret, serving as the royal adviser had been the most rewarding job that he had ever undertaken. He cast his eyes over the capital city which was merely a shell of its former splendour, like the palace it was left in ruins by the departing Federation forces, once beautifully constructed buildings formed the skyline now they were nothing but empty shells that would soon be pulled down, it was hoped that the remains could be recycled to construct new buildings for the people of the beleaguered city to live in. Chifar Warsle caught sight of a little girl walking through the rubble of where a building once stood, scavenging for anything that could be considered useful, he felt a pang of guilt for the girl, who was dress in ragged red clothing that looked like it was close to falling apart, it was a common sight on Merrica Prime, Chifar looked down at his own clothes, he was dressed smartly in a two piece grey suit and white shirt, a far cry from what that little girl wore, he looked away from the girl, feeling guilty for being who he was, he felt worse knowing that he had fed only a few minutes earlier. The Federation had a lot to answer for, Chifar knew that but Merrica Prime was not in the condition to fight, the rigours of life were the main concern of the people of the fallen royal planet, what else was happening in the galaxy did not matter anymore. Chifar turned, the cabinet room had a heavy oak table in the middle, surrounded by oak chairs, one thing that had to be said was the fact that the former banqueting hall had not been too effected by the Federation occupation, or at least that is what it seemed, the artwork of the palaces former residents still hung on the walls, all of them were oil paintings, portraits of the now deceased Queen Zandar and her large family. Chifar gave particular attention to one of the oil paintings, one that showed a young brown haired woman who was wearing a bright red horse riding jacket, a white blouse and a pair of white jodhpurs with a protective helmet held under her right arm, behind her were three horses grazing on a green field that was surrounded by trees, Chifar's blue eyes welled with tears, he missed the young princess, she had been out horse riding when the invasion happened, Chifar managed to slip out of the palace when the royal family had been rounded up so he could search for her, once he had found her he put her on one of the last transports off the planet, he would have gone with her but the transports captain said there was not enough room for two, so Chifar had given up his place for the princess, Chifar remembered that moment was very tearful, he had loved young Samantha as if she was his own child, he missed her, especially when the young woman failed to follow royal protocol when entertaining guests or attending a function, she hated rules, she hated being of royal blood because she wasn’t able to go out into the city without having an armed guard with her, she found the restraints of royalty frustrating, Chifar sighed, the people needed a royal family, something to believe in, the name of Merrica Prime had always be associated with royalty and the woman in the painting was now their only hope. Chifar gazed into the rich brown eyes of the young princess as a member of the new palace royal guard entered the room,

“Yes, can I help you?” Chifar asked, not looking away from the painting,

“Sir, we have received a transmission from a starship that is calling itself the Arien, they say that they are responding to our emergency call,” the trooper said with a hint of excitement in his voice,

Chifar turned to the other man, the soldier was a Commander in rank, tall with a heavy build and dark, almost ebony coloured skin and he was wearing a crimson uniform, Chifar looked into the mans glowing blue eyes,

“That is good news,” he said with a smile,

“Good sir? Surely it is going to take more than one ship to help us?” The Commander said curiously,

“True, Commander…?”

“Simpson sir, Ethan Simpson,”

“However, all it takes is for one ship to arrive here, see what kind of condition we are in and call for assistance, hopefully this starship Arien will be the first of many Commander Simpson,” Chifar said calmly,

Ethan Simpson nodded,

“I understand sir, shall I inform you the moment they land?”

“Yes please Commander Simpson,” Chifar said as he turned his attention back to the painting, Ethan Simpson remained still, he hadn’t been dismissed yet,

“Simpson, any relation to Carl Simpson?” Chifar asked as he turned to the Commander,

“Yes sir, he was my little brother,”

“A good man was your brother, I met him on countless occasions, especially when his company, C, Simpson Enterprises received its royal seal, he was a good civil engineer, Queen Zandar enjoyed his work, before the invasion she was hoping to have him design an out house for the palace,” Chifar said with fondness,

“It is a pity that he is no longer with us,” he added sombrely,

“I know, I had told him not to go to Gauda Prime but he wanted to try and build a business on a larger planet. He ended up getting caught up in the civil war against the Federation with someone called Blake, the Federation boasted that they had killed him about a year later,” Ethan Simpson said sadly,

“A pity, our world needs people like him, now more than ever,” Chifar said gravely,

“Because of that, if I find out that any of Blake’s people survived, I would kill then for letting my brother die,” Ethan Simpson said sadly but scornfully,

Chifar gave Simpson an understanding look, it was something that came naturally to the people of Merrica Prime, revenge was never far from peoples thoughts,

“Go about your business Commander, inform me once the Arien has landed,”

“Yes sir,”

With that, Ethan Simpson turned and marched out of the room, leaving Chifar to his thoughts and hopes of returning Merrica Prime to its past glories. 

Liza Ford loosened the collar of her uniform as she allowed herself to relax in the room that Nixon had provided, she had been waiting for just over three hours since being told by Nixon to wait for him to call her again, from the window Liza could see her personal assault fleet, nine ships in all, impressive but not as impressive as the Galactic Ninth Fleet that Liza could see just below her little fleet, she sighed, she would love to have the chance of leading such a fleet, her greatest wish was to command the famous Galactic Eighth Fleet, the flag ship fleet of the Federation navy but that fleet still had not been replaced since its destruction during Operation Freedom over the planet Wanta five months ago. Liza turned away from the window as the door chime sounded,

“Enter,” Liza called out,

The door opened and Cory Williams entered the room,

“Does the Supreme Commander wish to see me now?” Liza asked,

“Not that I’m aware of, apparently he is in session with Federation High Command, I don’t know when he’ll be free,” Cory replied as she walked over to the rooms only window and looked out at the mass of ships,

“Impressive,” she said before turning to the other officer.

Liza Ford cursed under her breath, she hated all of this waiting,

“I just wanted to know how your meeting went.” Cory asked,

“It didn’t go as I had expected, there was something strange about the whole thing, even though Nixon and I were the only people in the room it felt as if someone was watching us, it felt a little odd,” Liza said with a frown,

“Really, what do you think it was?” Cory asked, sounding fascinated,

“I have no idea, but something that I’m sure of is that Nixon is trying to become our next president,” Liza confided,

“It has to be expected, he has wanted the presidency for years,” Cory said,

“Maybe, but one thing that surprised me was when I told him that Kerr Logan and Roxanne Davis were still alive, he took it calmly, I had expected him to start yelling even more, all he said was that it changes things,” Liza Ford said as she turned back to the window and looked into space, as if it would give her an answer.

Kerr Logan stepped down the entry ramp of the Arien, Roxy followed close behind as she slipped into a light weight black jacket, by the time Roxy joined Logan’s side they were met by a tall, grey haired man, behind him marched two men in grey and green uniforms with rifles held over their chests,

“You must be Chifar?” Logan said as he offered the older man his hand,

“I am,” Chifar said,

“I am thankful that you answered my call,” he added with genuine warmth,

“I’m Kerr Logan and this is Roxy Davis,” Logan said calmly,

Chifar turned to Roxy and offered her his hand,

“Charmed,” he said as Roxy accepted his welcome,

“Welcome to Merrica Prime,” Chifar said as he gestured to the exit,

“You have quickly re-named your planet, it wasn’t long since the Federation pulled out,” Logan said as he walked beside Chifar,

“Returning the name of our world was the first was the first thing we did, the population had always disliked having to call our world Gauda Two, it was a calculated insult by the Federation when they invaded us, we wanted to return the insult by re-naming our home the moment they left,” Chifar said as he guided his guests out of the spaceport.

They left the spaceport exit and headed towards a waiting transport, Roxy stopped walking as she cast her eyes over the city, she was shocked by the wide scale destruction, most of the buildings were hollow husks, mere fragile shells that were beyond repair, some of the buildings were already being torn down by engineering teams, Logan stopped when he noticed that Roxy was not by his side, he turned to her, he could see that she was upset by the sight of the city,

“Roxy?” He asked warmly,

“I don’t believe this,” she said shakily,

“I’m afraid that most of the city is like this,” Chifar said sadly,

Roxy looked at him with wide eyes,

“I’m so sorry,” she said, sounding very sincere,

“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault, this was the result of Federation bigots and one day they will be the ones that will be sorry,” the interplanetary minister said resolutely as he opened the door to the transport and watched as Logan and Roxy stepped inside, he followed them in and slammed the door shut.

Chifar sat in the second of three seats inside the transport, Roxy was sat at his left and Logan was sat to his right, giving both off worlders a perfect view of the city as the transport headed towards the palace. The sight that greeted Roxy when she stepped outside the spaceport did not prepare her for what she was seeing now, the transport turned down a back street which was a short cut to the centre of the city and to the palace, Roxy saw young children of various races playing around the decaying buildings, most had wooden sticks which they used as toy guns, they chased after each other, yelling out once they had ‘shot’ someone, the children wore dirty ragged clothing, some boys only wore torn trousers. Roxy’s eyes filled with water as two children, one white boy and one black girl who both had bright blue eyes watched their transport as it passed by. Logan was talking to the older, grey haired man,

“I’m surprised that you didn’t call for assistance sooner,” Logan said,

“I suggested that we take this course of action not long after the Federation withdraw, my fellow ministers said that we could cope on our own,” Chifar said sadly,

“We ran into too many problems, everything we tried to do failed, it took us long enough to build a working power station, even longer to rebuild the interplanetary communications systems,” he added,

“I have heard about your peoples stubbornness to accept help from outside forces, a friend of ours who was born here had told us of that,” Logan said grimly,

“Our people have been self sustaining for over three hundred years, since the Earth’s last royal family were banished from its homeland by the rising Federation, we have our pride, so we only accept help from outsiders when we know that we cannot help ourselves,”

“It must of hurt your government to ask for help?” Logan questioned,

“The government only had the idea, it was the people who decided,” Chifar responded with a sense of pride,

“You mean that you put it to a democratic vote?” Roxy asked, sounding surprised,

“Yes we did, why the surprise?” Chifar asked, turning to face Roxy,

“It’s just something that I haven’t heard being done before,” Roxy answered,

“On Merrica Prime, the government acts on the peoples behalf, we are not dictators like the Federation,” Chifar pointed out,

“I can’t understand how such a system could work,” Roxy said,

“I know that democracy existed before the Federation but that was what the Federation claimed began the atomic wars,” she added,

“It is your system of Federation control that I cannot understand, it crushes mans simple right for freedom and anything that stands against it,” Chifar responded,

“Not necessarily,” Logan put in,

“Meaning?” Chifar asked,

“They have not destroyed us yet,” Logan replied with a smile,

Chifar smiled happily, something inside told him that Logan was able to help his world, the rebel had not lost hope and that was important,

“You fight against the Federation?” Chifar asked,

“Yes, I’m surprised that you haven’t heard of us,” Roxy said,

“Should I have?”

“We fought with John Blake,”

“You were with Blake and the Freedom?”

“Yes,” Roxy answered,

“But the Federation claimed to have destroyed you?” Chifar asked, sounding stunned,

“They failed,” Logan said with a smile,

Chifar smiled happily,

“Any enemy of the Federation is a friend of mine,” he said with a wide smile,

“You will be welcome here,” he added,

“Thank you,” Logan and Roxy said in unison,

Chifar then gave Logan a curious frown,

“That means that you must have known Carl Simpson?”

“We did know him, yes,” Roxy replied, remembering her former crew mate well,

”You knew him too?” Logan asked,

“He was well known here, most of the buildings in the city centre were designed by him, he was a very good engineer, and a good man, it is a shame that he is dead, not long ago I was just speaking about him to his older brother,” Chifar said with sorrow,

Even though Roxy didn’t get on with Carl Simpson she would have preferred it if he was still alive, she remembered that the last words they had spoken were in anger and that did not sit well with Roxy,

“I never knew he had a brother,” Logan said curiously,

“Neither did I, he never spoke of one,” Roxy said,

“Ah, here we are, the royal palace of Merrica Prime,” Chifar said, changing the subject as the transport entered a clearing that was just ahead of the large building, Logan and Roxy looked out of the windows. 

The palace was a large, rectangular building with heavy concrete pillars lined up in front of the main walls, the building was white washed with grey hoops surrounding the bases of the pillars, the palace was about four floors high with a flat roof that was patrolled by red uniformed guards, surrounding the palace was a twenty foot high wrought iron fence with a gold leaf decoration on the tips of the upright gate supports,

“Beautiful,” Roxy cooed,

“It is isn’t it,” Chifar agreed,

“Although it is not as impressive as it used to be, the pillars used to be covered with gold leaf but the Federation in their great wisdom decided to remove it and melt it down for currency, many royal statues went the same way. Like the city, the palace is only a shell of its former self but we are trying hard to rebuild it, as to the peoples wishes,” Chifar said with a mixture of hope and anger.

The transport arrived at the main gates, the guardsmen checked the transport registration, once they had been confirmed the massive iron gates opened and the transport driver brought the vehicle up to the main entrance that was guarded by six red uniformed guards. The transport stopped at the main steps and the transport doors open, the passengers disembarked and headed into the palace, the drivers side door of the transport hissed open and Commander Ethan Simpson stepped out, glaring at the backs of Logan and Roxy,

“So, you were with Blake and the Freedom,” he said seething to himself,

“You will pay for letting my brother die.”

A tall fair haired man walked from the palace grounds, the red uniformed guards allowed him to pass, he marched towards a dark alley way not too far from the palace gates, he disappeared into the shadows and was soon joined by three other men who were wearing black overalls,

“You are late,” one of the men in black said firmly, he was a tall man with dark brown hair and blue eyes, he had a threatening presence about him,

“It isn’t easy to leave the palace without a good reason, and besides I’ve got some good information for you,” the government aide said as the taller of the three men stepped closer to him,

“Really, tell me,” he ordered,

“The government got the communication system working and sent out a call for help,”

“Was it answered?” The man in black said,

“Yes, by a starship calling itself the Arien, they think that they can help Merrica Prime rebuild itself,” the government aide said as the two other men walked behind him,

“They must not be allowed to succeed,” the tall man commanded,

“I will do what I can Section Leader Ryan,” the aide said, feeling nervous with the two troopers behind him,

“You do that, now go back to the palace and keep me informed,”

Ryan ordered firmly,

“Yes sir,” the aide said before heading into the light of the clearing ahead of the palace,

Section Leader Ryan stepped towards his bodyguards,

“Send a message to all units, I want a meeting in five hours,” he ordered.

Danial Carson paced the flight deck, he felt uncomfortable with the idea of Logan and Roxy talking to the government of Merrica Prime whilst he was stuck on the ship with Samantha and Ironside for company, he would have preferred to have gone with them.

“Could you stop pacing, you could wear out the floor if you continue,” Samantha snapped, who didn’t like the idea of being on the planet full stop,

“I’ll only stop when they get back, I hate not knowing what is happening, especially when Logan’s involved,” Danial said firmly as he glared at the dark haired woman,

“You will never know everything Danial, there will always be something that you do not know,” Ironside pointed out in his scientific, logical tone and that irritated Danial,

“True,” he snapped,

“For example, I do not know why Samantha did not want to come here and why because we are here, she wishes to stay hidden,” he added as he walked to the flight controls,

“It was agreed that you wouldn’t keep asking me that,” Samantha King stated firmly,

“You agreed that with Logan, not with me,” Danial countered,

“Tell me Samantha, what is it, you done something wrong and the authorities would want to capture you?” He asked as he smiled accusingly at Samantha,

“It is none of your business Danial, no matter how often you pester me I will not tell you, so go and do something that will keep that little brain of yours interested,” Samantha bit back,

Danial Carson smiled as he turned to Lyle Ironside, who was trying to stay out of the argument,

“What do you think Ironside?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Ironside, I forgot that you can’t think,” Danial added with sarcasm,

“Leave him alone Danial,” Samantha snapped,

“If push came to shove, I would make sure that it was you that I would push heavily out of my life. I have known Ironside a lot longer than I have known you, I trust him and he is what I would call a friend, you are merely a means to an end so be quiet and bury yourself somewhere, preferably outside of the flight deck,” she said pointedly as she and Ironside gave Danial scornful looks.

Danial shrugged his broad shoulders, turned away from Samantha and just laughed as he headed out of the flight deck, leaving Samantha and Ironside giving each other bemused looks.

Chifar entered the cabinet room followed quickly by Logan and Roxy,

“I must say that this palace is very nice,” Roxy said with enthusiasm,

“It was far better before the invasion,” Chifar said sombrely,

“I can imagine,” Roxy said, nodding her head, she could only wonder what the palace used to look like in its glory days,

“You wait here whilst I will get the Prime Minister for you, I will not be too long,” Chifar said as he headed out of the door.

“I hope we can help these people,” Roxy said as she turned to Logan,

“So do I,” he replied as he began to look at the oil paintings,

“These are quite nice paintings,” Logan remarked as he looked at on that showed an old woman that was wearing a red dress and fur lined robe,

“That is an understatement, these are beautiful, I would love to have a painting like these done of me, I think that---,”

Logan turned to Roxy who was now staring at one painting,

“What is it?” He asked,

“Have a look at this one, tell me who it looks like,” Roxy said as Logan joined her side,

“It can’t be can it?” Logan said breathlessly,

“I think it is,” Roxy said as she looked at that painting of the woman that was dressed in traditional horse riding clothing,

“Samantha King, royalty?” Roxy asked as she turned to Logan,

“It sure looks that way,” Logan replied,

“That could explain why she didn’t want to come here, because her people would never let her go again,” Roxy said as it became clear to her,

“Unless of course they kicked her out?” She added curiously,

“Could well be, it would explain why she wants to destroy the Federation so much,” Logan said with an agreeing nod,

“With what they have done to her planet I wouldn’t blame her,” Logan added,

“Do we tell Chifar?” Roxy asked,

“I promised Samantha that I wouldn’t let anyone find out she was here, I’m not going back on my word,” Logan replied,

“You honourable man,” Roxy said with a playful smile as Chifar entered the room, followed by a man who wore exactly the same coloured suit as the interplanetary minister.

“Logan, Roxy, this is Prime Minister Blairman,” he announced formally. 

Liza Ford and Cory Williams was sat at a table, Liza was looking into her empty glass, she hated all of this waiting,

“I’m going to scream if I have to wait any longer, I’m quite used to waiting, you have to on some operations but here I am, I’m off duty and I’m still in uniform, something is wrong here,”

“I wouldn’t worry about it Liza, if something nasty was going to happen it would have happened by now,” Cory said reassuringly,

“I bet that High Command are working on ways to punish me for the president’s death,” Liza said as she rose to her feet and walked to the drinks cabinet,

“All this waiting is enough to drive me to drink,” she cursed as she filled her glass with white wine,

“Do you want a top up?” Liza offered,

“No thank you, if I drink anymore I might do something foolish like making a pass at you,” Cory said with a smirk,

“That would have been the best thing that happen to me since I arrived here,” Liza said before downing her glass of wine,

“Maybe I should have another glass,” Cory said suggestively as the door chime sounded,

“Enter,” Liza called as she passed the bottle of wine to Cory.

The door open and Supreme Commander Nixon stepped inside, he noticed Cory and immediately said,

“Leave us Cory, I wish to speak to Liza alone,”

“Certainly sir,” Cory said as she turned to her friend and gave her a reassuring smile,

“I’ll see you later,” she added as she headed towards the door,

“Sure,” Liza said, sounding uncertain.

Once Nixon and Liza was alone the Supreme Commander spoke,

“I’ll get to the point Liza, you once told me that you didn’t wish to join the elite forces because you wanted to become the supreme commander one day, do you still have that ambition?”

“I do sir, why?” Liza asked, not knowing where Nixon was leading.

Nixon walked to the window and looked out at the mass of ships that orbited the station, Liza remained still, trying to gauge Nixon’s mood,

“I have just resigned my position as supreme commander,” Nixon said gravely,

“Sir?” Liza asked, not believing what she was hearing,

“We need good officers like you sir, it was my fault that President Sleer was murdered not yours. I should be the one to resign sir,”

Liza stated firmly,

“I cannot have you resigning too Liza, besides, I have a new responsibility now,” Nixon replied,

“Such as?” Liza pressed,

“I am now President elect of the Federation,” Nixon announced,

“President?” Liza gasped,

“I have convinced Federation High Command that only I could replace Sleer, they agreed but only gave me the presidency for a trial six month period, after that time it may become permanent,” Nixon said as he turned to Liza Ford,

“As you are probably aware, I cannot hold the presidency and the post of supreme commander at the same time,”

“I’m aware of that,” Liza said, still sounding surprised,

“Which means that I have to promote someone to replace me,” Nixon stated as he turned back to the view outside the station,

“And that person is you Liza Ford,” he announced,

“Me, but---,” Liza Ford said, totally surprised by his words,

“You are a natural leader Liza, the Federation needs that quality now,” Nixon said as he turned to her,

“I had to stick my neck on the line to get you your promotion Liza but I know that you are the best person for the job, if you are willing to take on the responsibility that is,” 

“I most certainly am,” Liza responded as everything that was happening finally settled in,

“Good, you are to report to my office---,” Nixon stopped and smiled,

“Your office and I will fully brief you before I depart to Earth,” Nixon continued,

“When sir,” Liza asked,

“In half an hour, I hope you have nothing planed tonight because this will run for a few hours at least,”

“That is fine sir, I’ll see you in half an hour,” Liza said with a smile, it was hard not to shout out with joy, or even give Nixon a hug.

The President elect of the Federation turned from the window and headed towards the door as Liza called,

“Congratulations sir,”

“And congratulations to you Supreme Commander,” Nixon said before leaving her room.

After a short while Cory Williams re-entered the room,

“Well?” She asked, wanting to know everything that had just occurred, she noticed Liza’s stunned appearance,

“Tell me,” she urged,

Liza finally turned to Cory and smiled,

“I’ve done it Cory, I have finally done it,”

“Done what?” Cory pressed,

“I’m now the Supreme Commander of the Federation,” Liza announced with a smile,

“Supreme Commander?” Cory gasped in disbelief,

“Yes,” Liza replied calmly as she headed to the fresher to clean up before her meeting with President elect Nixon. 

Chifar Warton, Roxy and Logan walked to the entry ramp of the Arien,

“I hope that Avon will be willing to help your people,” Roxy said as she turned to Chifar,

“So do I, it was a good idea of yours Logan, we can only wait and hope,” Chifar said with optimism,

“I hope so too,” Logan said as Danial Carson descended the ramp,

“Logan, can I speak with you?”

“Excuse me Chifar,” Logan said as he offer the older man his hand,

“Certainly,” Chifar responded as he shook Logan’s hand,

“I’d better be going anyway,” he added with a smile,

“Hope to see you soon,” Roxy said warmly,

“You will,” Chifar said before taking Roxy’s hand and giving it a tender kiss which made Roxy blush,

“What is it Danial?” Logan asked as Chifar headed out of the hanger,

“You’re not going to believe this,” Danial said,

“Nixon has now been sworn in as President elect of the Federation,” he announced,

“That doesn’t surprise me, I told you that would happen didn’t I,” Logan snapped as he began to ascend the ramp, followed by Roxy,

“That is not the surprise,” Danial said,

“What is then?” Roxy asked,

“Liza Ford has succeeded Nixon as Supreme Commander,”

“What?” Logan shouted,

“It’s just been broadcasted to every planet of the Federation,” Danial said as he followed Logan and Roxy into the ship,

“This is bad, very bad,” Logan said worriedly.

Once the three rebels had entered the ship another person began to ascend the ramp.

Chifar stepped outside the spaceport, he noticed that one of his guards was standing by the open drivers door of his transport,

“Where has Commander Simpson gone?” Chifar asked as he stood in front of the guard,

“I don’t know sir, the only thing he said was that it was something to do his younger brother,” the guard replied,

Chifar suddenly turned back to the entrance of the spaceport,

“Oh no, he’s going after Logan.” 

Chifar then ran back into the spaceport, hoping that he could reach Logan before Ethan Simpson did anything stupid.

Ethan Simpson gingerly stepped into the Arien, he kept his laser rifle aimed ahead of him as he made his way toward the ships flight deck, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching and quickly ducked into a small service room, he watched as Lyle Ironside walked passed, once it was clear the intruder slipped out of the room and followed Ironside, carefully making sure that he walked as quietly as possible, he smiled as he reached the flight deck, he saw Roxy and Logan, they greeted Ironside before the scientist headed out of the opposite door, Simpson’s smile widen, they were alone, he levelled his gun and stepped inside the flight deck. Even though Logan was standing with his back to Simpson he immediately felt his presence, he turned and looked straight at Simpson,

“Murderer,” Simpson shouted angrily,

Roxy turned, her eyes widened, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, the man she was looking at was a spitting image of Carl Simpson,

“Murderer?” Logan asked curiously,

“Yeah, you left my brother to die,” Ethan snarled,

“What are you talking about?” Roxy asked,

“You left my brother to die at the hands of the Federation,” Ethan explained,

“You must be speaking of Carl Simpson,” Logan said as he stepped nearer to the ebony skinned man, putting himself between Roxy and the intruder,

“Stay still,” Ethan ordered,

Logan stopped as Danial Carson entered the flight deck,

“What the hell is going on?” He asked,

“Stay back or your friend dies,” Simpson warned,

Danial stepped back and gestured to Logan,

“Go ahead, kill him,” he said with a smile,

“Not yet, I want to hear their reasons for leaving my brother to die,” Ethan Simpson said firmly,

“I did not leave your brother to die,” Logan protested,

“Liar, you are lying to me,” Ethan shouted as he forced his gun at Logan, at that moment Chifar rushed into the flight deck,

“No Simpson, don’t do it,” he ordered,

“This is personal sir,” Ethen replied, glaring at Logan,

“I didn’t leave him to die, the Federation were close to breaking into our hidden base, we were in the landing bay and about to leave when your brother suddenly left the ship, saying that he had left something that his mother had given to him behind in his room, we tried to stop him but he wouldn’t have it, so Karla, another one of our friends went with him, both were killed by the Federation when they stormed the base. We did what we could to save them but we failed, Simpson was dead before we left the base,” Logan said quickly to try and explain to Simpson what had actually happened whilst he looked down the barrel of the gun and took a step closer,

“Stay still,” Ethan shouted, his blue eyes were wide and filled with tears,

“Kerr,” Roxy said, fearful of something happening to her man,

“Well, are you going to do it?” Danial asked,

“What?” Ethan Simpson said, sounding confused, wondering why one of Logan’s crewmates wanted Simpson to kill him,

“Go ahead,” Danial said,

“Danial, shut up,” Logan shouted,

“Kill him,” Danial ordered,

“Don’t do it,” Chifar countermanded,

Ethan Simpson levelled his gun on Logan and bitterly said,

“Time to die,”

“Stop right there,”

Everyone suddenly turned around, Samantha King stood by the door with Ironside standing by her side, Chifar’s eyes widened, even though it had been ten years since he had assisted in her escape during the invasion, he recognised her immediately,

“Your Majesty,” he gasped before falling to one knee and bowing his head,

“And you say that I surround myself in mystery,” Danial said with a smile,

Ethan seemed to stagger, even he knew who she was but he couldn’t believe it,

“It’s a trick, some kind of trick,” he said weakly,

Samantha stepped between Logan and Simpson, she looked into Simpson’s watery eyes,

“If you wish to kill Logan you are going to have to kill me,” she said commandingly,

“Do you want to be known as the person who killed the last surviving member of the royal family?” She asked as she stepped closer to the tall, ebony skinned man.

Ethan slowly lowered his gun, he was still in shock,

“Good,” Samantha said as everyone in the flight deck gave out a combined sigh of relief,

“Trust me when I say that Kerr Logan would not leave anyone of his friends to die,” Samantha said as she set her hand of Simpson’s broad shoulder,

“But the Federation said---,”

“Ignore what the Federation said, what they say about certain events is nothing more than fabrications of the truth, they would not know what truth was if it ran up to them and told them who it was,” Samantha interrupted,

“I’m sorry,” Ethan said, kneeling before his future Queen,

“That is okay Simpson, no harm was done. Please rise, you too Chifar,” Samantha said warmly,

Chifar and Simpson rose to their feet, the Interplanetary Minister turned to Samantha and asked,

“Would it be wrong of me to want to give you a hug Princess?”

“Not at all,” Samantha replied before giving Chifar a big hug,

“It is so good to see you again old friend,” Samantha cooed, feeling the warm sensation of finally coming home,

“The feelings are mutual your majesty,” Chifar said, smiling fondly,

“It is so good to know that you are okay, we must go to the palace, to put you in your true place as Queen of Merrica Prime,” Chifar said enthusiastically,

“I will go to the palace but I will not stay to reign, not yet anyway,” Samantha said as she stepped out of the embrace,

“But your highness, your people need you,” Chifar protested,

“Not yet they don’t, and besides it isn’t a good idea if I stay to reign and the Federation find out, they may come back to finish the job, with me here I am jeopardising the people of Merrica Prime, the only safe option is for me is to do what I can to help while I’m here and then leave to continue my fight against the Federation, only with them gone will I come back,” Samantha said reassuringly,

Chifar reluctantly nodded, he understood her reasoning even though he would sooner have her stay. Samantha noticed his reluctance and gently stroked his cheek,

“It isn’t safe for me here, there could well be some remains of the Federation still here,” she added sadly, understanding Chifar’s pain, she would love to stay, but the war wouldn’t let her,

“But the Federation have gone,” Chifar protested,

“I doubt that,” Danial snapped,

Samantha, Chifar and Logan turned to him,

“Meaning?” Samantha asked,

“It is very likely that there is a shadow force here,” Danial answered,

“Right, they would remain behind to make sure that every attempt that you made to repair and rebuild your world would fail,” Logan said as he turned to Samantha King,

“Why?” She asked,

“To prevent the planet from becoming a threat to Federation security,” Danial answered,

“How would they do it?” Chifar asked, sounding concerned,

“They would wreck equipment, slow down production of useful tools and make sure that some ideas to rebuild would never work out,” Danial replied,

“You seem to know a lot about this,” Roxy said accusingly to Danial,

“Of course I know about it, I used to do that kind of thing,” Danial replied as he sat at the communications control board,

“As a matter of interest, was the communications system you used to send out your emergency call the only com system you’ve got?” Danial asked Chifar,

“Yes, yes it is, why?”

“That is good, because the shadow force that are here would need to report to headquarters on a regular basis, with the fact that you have only one com system, if you shut it off we may be able to find where the shadow force is hiding when they send out their next report,” Danial stated as he began to prepare the communications system to run a continual com-beam sweep,

“I’m not sure that the government would want to do that, you see the signal that you picked up is still being transmitted,” Chifar said with regret,

“Then we will change their minds,” Samantha said resolutely as she crossed her arms,

“Good, we shut that thing down,” Danial said firmly.

Prime Minister Blairman stood with his arms crossed, he glared at Chifar who had almost ordered him to his office,

“This had better be good Chifar,” he snapped,

“Surely that is not the way to speak to one of your ministers, Mr Blairman?”

The prime Minister turned around to the voice behind him saying,

“What right have you got to question me?”

“Every right,” Samantha snapped as she walked towards him, Blairman’s mouth dropped,

“Princess Samantha?” He gasped,

“That is right Prime Minister,”

“I thought you were dead, I mean Chifar told me of his efforts to get you off Merrica Prime when the Federation invaded but I never thought that you managed to escape,”

“I did escape and now I’m here to help my people,” Samantha said firmly.

At the door of the office, the governmental aide stood listening to the conversation inside.

Blairman headed to the door saying,

“We will immediately hold a government meeting so we can arrange the ceremony to inform our world that you are our Queen,”

“That is not what I’m here for,” Samantha said, bringing Blairman to a sudden stop,

“What?”

“I’m here to ask you to shut down the communications system,”

“Shut it down, you must be joking, do you know how long it took us to build that thing and make it work? We must keep it running, if we close it done we may not get it working again, and that would not be good for us if we couldn’t call for help which, as you can see is very much needed,” the Prime Minister protested.

The aide listened with interest, he knew that the Federation would love to hear about the return of one of Merrica Prime’s Princesses, knowing full well that her return could spark the life into people of this rotten planet.

“You say that it took a long time to build, why?” Samantha asked,

“I don’t know, things kept going wrong with it,”

“I bet I could tell you why it took so long to build,”

“Go on,” Blairman insisted,

“There is a Federation unit still operating on Merrica Prime, one who’s only purpose is to stop our people from re-entering the galactic community, to prevent us from ever becoming a threat again,” Samantha explained,

“So how is shutting down the communication system going to find this Federation unit?” Blairman asked.

The aide was suddenly very concerned to know that this princess knew of the shadow force that had infiltrated the planets weakened superstructure, he would have to inform Section Leader Ryan about this.

“This Federation unit, a shadow unit as they are called have to report to headquarters on occasions, when they make their next call we will use the communication systems onboard the Arien to find them, then we will destroy them,” Samantha explained,

Blairman nodded, understanding his future Queen,

“If you are sure that there is a Federation unit here?” He said,

“I have it on good authority,” Samantha said surely.

The aide was just about to move out when he felt something hard push against his back,

“I imagined there would be someone working on the inside,” Danial Carson said with a smile,

“Nice to know that the Federation still keep to standard operating procedure,” he added with a sense of satisfaction,

“Now get up,” he ordered as he grabbed the aide and threw him into Chifar’s office.

Samantha spun around as the aide fell to the floor with a thud, she reached for her gun as Danial stepped in,

“This person was listening in to your conversation, as I expected you have a mole,” Danial said as he turned to Chifar and then Samantha,

“Maybe he can tell us where his friends are,” the Princess said firmly as she stood over the cowering man and aimed her gun at him,

“I won’t tell you anything,” the spy snapped defiantly,

“I’m sure that I could change your mind,” Danial snapped as he crouched down, grabbed the spy by the throat and pushed the barrel of his gun into his face. 

Ryan Cuthburtson marched into the make shift operations room that his shadow unit had quickly thrown together, three troopers were going about their duties,

“Report,” he ordered,

One of the troopers stood up and gave his report,

“All units will be here within the next hour,”

“Good, have we heard from our agent inside the government?” Ryan asked firmly,

“Not yet sir but he isn’t due to report in until five o’clock,” the trooper replied,

“True,” Ryan said as he looked at his chronometer, it was only three thirty,

“Okay, let me know when the first unit arrives,” Ryan ordered as he marched out of the room,

“Yes, your high and mightiness,” the trooper said as he turned to the other two troopers and smiled,

“It was better when Drake was leading us, that Ryan is a right bastard,”

“I agree with that, I still think that he killed Drake to take control,” a trooper that was working on the communications unit said in agreement,

“He won’t last too long, not with what the others are saying,” the same trooper said.

Danial stepped out of an interrogation room, shaking his head, Logan and Samantha turned to him,

“He is not going to break, he is tougher than I had expected,” Danial said glumly,

“I’ve tried everything I know,” he added,

“What are we going to do?” Samantha asked Logan as Roxy joined them,

“Any luck?” Roxy asked,

“No,” Logan said gravely,

“I have an idea,” Roxy offered,

“Go on,” Danial said, not expecting Roxy to say anything useful,

“What if we fake a jail break?” She asked,

“Fake a jail break?” Samantha queried,

“Yes, if we arrange for security to be relaxed and have someone dressed in a Federation uniform or something like that and mount a rescue, hoping that he does a runner back to his friends,” Roxy replied as she crossed her arms and turned to Logan,

“But how will that help us?” Danial asked,

“He will get away and we will never find out where his friends are,” he

added,

“We would if, during the escape we place a sensor detector on him,” Roxy countered, showing that she had thought her idea through,

Logan turned to Samantha with a smile,

“Could you arrange for security to be lowered?”

“I could do,” she replied with a smile, sensing that things were moving again,

“Good,” Logan said as Samantha headed down the corridor,

“He has seen Danial and I, and Samantha can’t do this,” Logan stated,

“And Ironside couldn’t do this,” Danial stated as he looked at Roxy with a hard stare,

“It was your idea Roxy, you can do it,”

Roxy’s mouth dropped,

“Me?” She asked,

“I don’t see why not,” Logan said, agreeing with Danial,

“But--,” Roxy said as she turned to Logan,

“Trust me,” Logan said with a smile,

“Just to make this seem as authentic as possible, you will be shot during the escape, he will think that you are dead and continue to run, probably scared out of his wits. Hopefully he will run directly for his friends and then we will have them,” Logan added,

“If I’m to be shot, I want you to do it,” Roxy said to Logan,

“I don’t trust anyone else,” she added as she looked at a smiling Danial,

“Most definitely,” Logan agreed as Samantha returned,

“Has security been arranged?” Danial Carson asked,

“Yes, all will be ready by the hour,” Samantha King replied,

“Thank you your worship,” Danial said sarcastically,

Samantha gave him an angry look and snapped,

“Shut it Danial.” 

An hour passed and everything was set in place, Logan handed Roxy a Federation para-handgun that he had stored in the Arien, his woman was now dressed in a black jump-suit and a Federation insignia had be sown onto the breast pocket,

“You certainly look the part,” Logan said as he looked Roxy up and down, even in an old jump-suit she looked amazing,

“I better do, I’ve got to convince our guest that I’m genuine,” Roxy said as she fastened a belt around her waist,

“Just remember what Danial and I have said to you,” Logan said, hoping that Roxy understood everything that had been said, the last thing he wanted was Roxy getting hurt,

“I will,” Roxy said reassuringly,

“Everything is ready,” Danial said as he walked over to Roxy,

“This is a detector sensor, it has a sticky back so during the rescue try and stick it somewhere on him were he won’t see it,” Danial instructed as he peeled off the backing sheet to the coin sized sensor and passed it to Roxy,

“Keep it in the palm of your hand, sticky side up,” Logan suggested,

Roxy’s palms were sweating,

“Right,” Roxy said nervously as she took the sensor in her left hand and held the gun in her right,

“Let’s get on with it.”

The interrogation room door slowly opened, the spy watched as Roxy poked her head into the room,

“Ah, found you,” she said as she looked back outside the room before slipping inside,

“Who are you?” The spy asked,

“Can’t talk now, the section leader wants you out of here,” Roxy said as she walked over to the spy and began to untie his legs from the chair that he was secured in,

“You mean that Ryan has ordered my rescue?” The spy asked in disbelief,

“That’s right,” Roxy replied, thinking quickly whilst she stuck the sensor on the back of his calf,

“How did he know? I wasn’t to report in for another half an hour,”

“You aren’t the only agent working inside the palace,” Roxy said as she released his arms,

The spy rubbed his wrists as he rose to his feet,

“I wasn’t aware of any other agent being here,” he said curiously,

“You weren’t supposed to, I didn’t even know that you were here until you got arrested, I informed command who gave me orders to rescue you,” Roxy replied as she rushed to the door,

“I guess that it prevents one of us telling these Merrican fools about the other if we got caught,” the spy said as he joined Roxy by the door,

“Although saying that, I’m sure that I would have remembered seeing you working around here,”

Roxy swallowed hard, hoping that he didn’t notice, was her cover blown? She hoped not, if he became aware of the plan against him he might just check himself for any detector devices,

“I usually work in the grounds as the assistant to the grounds man,” Roxy said, bluffing, hoping that the spy would believe her,

“It’s clear,” Roxy said after a quick scan of the outside corridor.

In a quick move Roxy and the spy darted out of the room and ran down the corridor, Roxy kept her gun trained ahead of her, they met no resistance until they reached the main staircase which lead down to the lobby,

“Halt,”

Roxy and the spy spun around to see three red uniformed guards and Kerr Logan running at them with guns drawn,

“Run,” Roxy yelled as she opened fire, deliberately missing her targets although one red uniformed guard dropped to the floor feigning death,

The spy ran down the stairs and through the large door that lead into the courtyard with Roxy close behind,

“Hurry up,” he shouted as he saw Logan appear at the top of the stairs,

Roxy continued running, she turned to fire at Logan as he levelled his gun on her, Logan made a quick check on the guns setting, it was set on stun, before Roxy could open fire Logan pulled the trigger, the shot rang out, the spy turned to see Roxy hit the ground, he looked up at Logan who now targeted him and made a run for it, heart racing and desperately wanting to be free, by the time Logan had descended the stairs to the body of Roxy the spy had made his escape,

“Well done,” Logan said as he crouched beside Roxy,

“It better be worth it” Roxy said as she slowly sat up, holding her right hip, feeling a pain stab at her from where Logan had shot her,

“That hurt,” she gasped as Logan helped her to her feet,

“You’ll be all right,” Logan said reassuringly as Danial appeared at the top of the stairs,

“We’ve got a very good signal from the sensor, well done Roxy,” he said with a smile,

“What now?” Roxy asked,

“In about twenty minutes, we send a small strike force to follow the signal, by the time they realised what has happened they will be dead,” Logan said as Danial joined them,

“The strike force is ready,” Danial announced,

“Good, let’s finish this,”

“Oh, Ironside called a moment ago, he says the Avon replied to our transmission and is sending a force to help,” Danial reported,

“Now that is very good news, Samantha is going to like that,” Logan said with a smile as he slipped an arm around Roxy’s slim waist, giving her a little support as they walked back up the stairs.

The spy ran into a damaged four floored building that stood just inside the city boundaries, he ran up to the second floor to where he knew the control room was, as he charged into the darkened room he was met by four black uniformed men all with their guns trained on him,

“Wait, it’s me, Jackson,” he shouted,

“What the hell are you doing here?” One of the troopers asked as the four men lowered their guns,

“What do you mean, what am I doing here? I’ve just got out of the palace after they found out who I was, if it wasn’t for Ryan sending another agent after me I would be dead right now,” Jackson snapped, breathing heavily, he had run the full distance from the palace which was five miles away,

“Ryan didn’t send anyone to rescue you,” the trooper said,

“Sure he did, he found out that I had been captured and got me out,” Jackson protested,

“Who told you that?” The trooper asked,

“The agent that helped me,”

“And where is this agent?”

“She died during the escape,” Jackson replied,

“She died?”

“Yes, you can asked Ryan if you don’t believe me,”

“I could but he has been in a meeting for the last hour and a half,”

Suddenly the penny dropped for Jackson who’s face turned white,

“She lied to me, she wasn’t sent by Ryan, those people helping the government did it. I lead them right here,” he said as he suddenly grabbed the trooper,

“We must tell Ryan, we must get out of here.”

Outside the building the strike force surrounded the hiding place of the Federation shadow unit, Logan, Roxy, Danial and Samantha were dressed in the same green and grey uniform as the Merrica Primes army, Logan scanned the building with a pair of electronic binoculars,

“This shouldn’t be too much trouble,” he said calmly as he turned to Danial,

“Standard siege tactics I think,” he added as he passed the binoculars over to the blonde man, who took them and scanned the building,

“Maybe that is being too cautious, there is no apparent security to worry about, no guards to concern us, maybe just rushing them will be good enough,” Danial said as he lowered the binoculars,

“You think so?” Logan asked,

“Yes,” Danial replied surely,

“Okay then, Samantha, give the order,” Logan commanded,

Samantha King nodded before speaking into a small hand communication unit,

“This is Samantha King to all troops, move in and remember, no prisoners.”

Before Jackson and the troopers could do anything, they heard gunfire and the sound of heavy boots running,

“We have gotta get outta here,” Jackson shouted,

Jackson turned to the door and found himself looking straight at Danial Carson,

“You,” he shouted,

“That’s right, I told you that you would tell me where your friends are,” Danial said before peppering the room with hot plasma, Jackson and all four Federation officers dropped like flies, Danial gave the room a quick scan, it was clean, there was no one else in the room.

Ryan turned as the door to the briefing room blasted inwards, as the combined members of the shadow unit recovered from the loud blast the Merrica Prime strike force stormed in, they were soon joined by Logan and Samantha, plasma flew across the large room from one side to the other, bodies fell, both Merrican and Federation, the shadow members took cover behind over turned tables and bodies of their fallen comrades, Ryan hid behind a small partition wall that lead to another entrance, returning fire whenever he could, Logan took cover behind a storage cupboard, he was joined by Samantha,

“Not many places to hide behind in here is there,” she said before firing at a group of Federation troopers, killing one of them,

“Where’s Roxy?” Logan asked,

Samantha scanned the room, as she turned to the door that they had just blasted and saw the blonde woman taking cover by the side of the hole that was left by the explosion,

“Behind us,” Samantha said,

Logan turned and saw his woman, she had the look of extreme seriousness as she fired on the men that were dressed in black,

The gunfire was dying, many men had fallen and the people that were still alive hid behind anything that was useful, only emerging from hiding to fire their guns, others had ran out of the room using the other entrance, Roxy slipped into the room, one Federation guard took aim at her but he was not fast enough to pull the trigger as Logan shot him dead, Roxy scanned the room and saw Ryan pop his head out from behind the wall and fire at a Merrican, her mouth dropped and her heart raced faster, Ryan turned to her and recognising her immediately, even though when he had known her she was a brunette, he seemed as surprised to see her as Roxy was to see him,

“Ryan,” she gasped as she took cover beside a Merrican shock trooper, that brutal day of her rape came flooding back to her, the day when Ryan almost killed her after she had ended their relationship, she took a deep breath, this was the first time she had seen him since leaving Earth, the anger began to grow within her, she had a chance of finally taking revenge on the man who had ruined her life and she was going to take it, Ryan remained behind the wall, he gripped his gun tighter as he said to himself,

“I’d heard that Roxy had become a rebel but I had never believed it until now,”

He smiled as another round of gunfire was expelled, killing two more Federation troopers, his force was losing, Ryan knew that it wouldn’t be too long before he was the next man to die unless he thought of something and quickly, Ryan took a deep breath and made a run for it. Roxy noticed Ryan dart out of the room, she tried to shot him but every plasma bolt missed, she cursed before turning to Logan, she gestured to the wall,

“Cover me,” she ordered,

“No Roxy,” he called out,

“I have to, Ryan has just ran out of the room,” Roxy replied,

Logan understood, he had been told of the ordeal that Roxy had suffered at the hands of him, he took a deep breath,

“Go on then,” he commanded as he let out an intense volley of plasma.

The Federation troopers dived for cover, one was never to stand again as a plasma bolt sheered through his back, Roxy darted to the wall and ran out of the room, Logan took another deep breath,

“Take care Roxy,” he said worriedly under his breath.

Roxy Davis entered a darkened corridor, it was lit by one or two red emergency lights, she could still hear the battle that raged in the room behind her, some gunfire sounded from the floor above her, she stepped gingerly forward, her heart was racing, her palms became sweaty and her breathing deepened, she heard something to her left, she stopped and concentrated, listening intently, it was the sound of shuffling feet that seemed to come from a room that was a few feet away, she let out a shaky breath, calmed herself and headed towards the room. Roxy stopped beside the door, that shuffling sound suddenly stopped, Roxy checked her side arm, it was three quarters full, she smiled,

“Ryan?” She called out,

“I know you are in there,” she added tauntingly.

No sound came from the room, Roxy levelled her gun and stepped closer to the door,

“Come on Ryan, why would you be afraid of me?” She asked.

Roxy had noticed that the gunfire was growing more silent, fewer shots were being exchanged, Roxy knew who would win this battle, the Merrican’s completely out numbered the Federation unit, once word had spread through the military about the shadow unit being on Merrica Prime every enlisted man and woman wanted to get involved, they all wanted one thing, revenge. Roxy was about to enter the room when a plasma bolt exploded in front of her, Roxy staggered backwards, she took a deep breath and decided to do what her mind told her not to do, she would rush him. Roxy levelled her gun and charged. The room was dark but all of a sudden it was lit up with gunfire, Ryan took aim and fired, hitting Roxy’s gun, it exploded in her hand, she winced and cursed through clenched teeth as her gun fell to the floor, in one swift motion Roxy took a firm hold of her sabre and extended the silver, three foot long blade, she felt that killing Ryan with her sabre would make this moment more personal, Roxy took a deep breath and held on tight to the handle of the sabre and before Ryan could let of another shot, Roxy struck, slicing his gun in two, it crackled and spat as the blade cut through the gun barrel, Ryan winced as the sparks burned his hand, forcing him to drop what remained of the gun, Roxy thrust the tip of her sabre at Ryan who dived to the floor, he rolled and tried to get to his feet but Roxy was quicker than he had expected, she kicked him off balance, Ryan landed on his back, breathing heavily as Roxy stood over him, 

“I’ve waited to do this for years Ryan,” Roxy seethed between clenched teeth,

“Come on then Roxy, if you’ve got the nerve,” Ryan said, taunting her, not believing that Roxy could hurt anyone,

“I want to know why you did it Ryan, why you wrecked my life,”

“I wrecked your life? I think that it was me who suffered, we were happy with you not knowing that I was married and telling my wife once you found out was stupid, because of that I lost my captaincy, I lost my wife, I lost everything, it took me long enough to rebuild my career afterwards,” Ryan shouted at her, seeing that there was a gun laying on the floor next to a dead trooper that was not too far away from him,

“I couldn’t care less about your career,” Roxy bit back,

“You ruined my life, you took everything from me, I lost all confidence, you stole that from me and made me feel cheap,” Roxy shouted,

“You were cheap, you are only a beta grade, a low life citizen, nothing more, nothing less,” Ryan countered as he watched the blade as it poked at him,

“Like every other women you used?” Roxy countered,

“They didn’t complain,“

“They probably thought that you were single. You offered the world to me but it was nothing but a shallow promise, you once said that we would marry, you lied to me,” Roxy said, feeling her eyes filling with water, she had to be strong, to show no weakness to this vial man,

“That is exactly what you wanted to hear, I knew what you wanted,”

“And you used me,”

“You had it coming,” Ryan shouted,

“You were easy to lie to, you put too much faith in other people, it is obvious to me that someone would take advantage of you,” Ryan added,

“Not anymore,” an angered Roxy said as she rose her sabre above her head,

“Time to die,” she said firmly,

Ryan tried to reach a gun that he has seen earlier beside a dead trooper, it was in vain as Roxy’s blade cut through him, making him scream out in absolute agony,

“Revenge is sweet,” Roxy said as she stood over the blooded corpse of the man who had raped her, all was quiet to Roxy’s ears, the only thing she could hear was the crackling of small fires, the sound of heavy combat boots and the deep breathing that passed her lips and the smell of discharged plasma filled the air. Roxy slowly turned away from the body and saw Kerr Logan standing by the door watching her, Logan walked to his woman as she turned back to Ryan’s body, he gently took her sabre,

“He’s dead, you’ve done it, you’ve got your revenge,” Logan said softly before Roxy turned to Logan and hugged him tight,

“Hold me,” she asked,

Logan held on to her as Samantha and Danial stopped outside the room and looked in, both saw the blooded remains of Ryan,

“What the hell did he do to her?” Samantha asked with wide eyes,

Logan turned to her whilst still holding Roxy,

“That is for Roxy to explain,” he replied as he looked down at the blonde woman he held,

“Anyway, what is our status?” He asked,

“It’s over Logan, we won,” Samantha said brightly, feeling satisfied with this victory,

“What do we do now?” Danial asked,

“We wait for Avon’s rebel force to arrive and then we leave,” Logan said calmly as he cradled Roxy in his arms,

“Good,” Danial said as he turned and walked back to the briefing room, finding it hard not to step on the dead bodies that littered the floor,

“Have you enjoyed your return home Samantha?” Logan asked,

“At first, no, but now I have, now my world has a chance to rebuild itself,” Samantha said with a smile,

Logan nodded and turned to Roxy,

“I think we should go now my peach,” he said in a whisper,

Roxy looked into Logan’s loving eyes, she felt strange at the moment, she had always expected to feel great when she finally got her revenge on Ryan but she didn’t, maybe it needed to settle in first, so she could except that Ryan was dead, she wasn’t sure, the only thing she was sure on was the handsome man that held her tight,

“Let’s go then,” she said sombrely. 


End file.
